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Jean Genet

Jean Genet Quotes

Novelist

Jean Genet was a French novelist known for his unique style and profound social criticism. His works often delve into the lives of marginalized individuals and their place in the social structure. Genet's life was filled with drama, having been a beggar and prisoner, experiences that deeply influenced his writing.

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All Men World Knows Betrayal Ifs May Body Evil Jean Genet Littles People Solitude Want Crime Flower Language Made Moments Murderer Order

Famous Jean Genet Quotes

“Beauty has no other origin than the singular wound, different in every case, hidden or visible, which each man bears within himself, which he preserves, and into which he withdraws when he would quit the world for a temporary but authentic solitude”

Men World Different Cases Bears Solitude Wounds Quitting Preserves Visible Temporary

Book:The selected writings of Jean Genet

Source: The selected writings of Jean Genet

“When I beheld you, suddenly - for perhaps a second - I had the strength to reject everything that wasn't you and to laugh at the illusion. But my shoulders are very frail. I was unable to bear the weight of the world's condemnation. And I began to hate you when everything about you would have kindled my love and when love would have made men's contempt unbearable, and their contempt would have made my love unbearable. The fact is, I hate you.”

Men World Made Facts Hate Laughing Bears Illusion Weight I Hate Shoulders Rejects Contempt Hate You Unbearable I Hate You Condemnation Frail Weight Of The World

Book:The Blacks: A Clown Show

Source: The Blacks: A Clown Show

“Limited by the world, which I oppose, jagged by it, I shall be all the more handsome and sparkling as the angles which wound me and give me shape are more acute and the jagging more cruel.”

World Giving Shapes Give Me Wounds Angle Handsome Sparkling

Book:The selected writings of Jean Genet

Source: The selected writings of Jean Genet

“Erotic play discloses a nameless world which is revealed by the nocturnal language of lovers. Such language is not written down. It is whispered into the ear at night in a hoarse voice. At dawn it is forgotten.”

World Play Night Language Voice Written Lovers Ears Forgotten Dawn Erotic Nameless Nocturnal Hoarse Voice

Book:The selected writings of Jean Genet

Source: The selected writings of Jean Genet

“If we behave like those on the other side, then we are the other side. Instead of changing the world, all we'll achieve is a reflection of the one we want to destroy.”

Ifs World Want Sides Achieve Reflection Behave Changing The World

Book:The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine Scenes

Source: The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine Scenes

“I wanted to swallow myself by opening my mouth very wide and turning it over my head so that it would take in my whole body, and then the Universe, until all that would remain of me would be a ball of eaten thing which little by little would be annihilated: that is how I see the end of the world.”

World Littles Ends Whole Body Would Be Wanted Universe Mouths Balls Wide Opening End Of The World

Book:Our Lady of the Flowers

Source: Our Lady of the Flowers

“Repudiating the virtues of your world, criminals hopelessly agree to organize a forbidden universe. They agree to live in it. The air there is nauseating. They can breathe it.”

World Universe Evil Virtue Air Agree Breathe Criminals Hopeless Organize Forbidden Wickedness

Book:The selected writings of Jean Genet

Source: The selected writings of Jean Genet

“Prisons! Prisons! Prisons, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible since they are the crossroads of all the malediction in the world. One cannot commit evil in evil.”

World Evil Hell Impossible Blessed Prison Commit Crossroads Dungeons

Author:Jean Genet

“Excluded by my birth and tastes from the social order, I was not aware of its diversity. Nothing in the world was irrelevant: the stars on a general's sleeve, the stock-market quotations, the olive harvest, the style of the judiciary, the wheat exchange, flower-beds. Nothing. This order, fearful and feared, whose details were all inter-related, had a meaning: my exile.”

World Order Social Stars Style Flower Birth Taste Bed Diversity Details Related Fearful Quotations Harvest Irrelevant Exile Sleeves Wheat Excluded Judiciary Olives Social Order

Book:The thief's journal

Source: The thief's journal

About the Author

Born: December 19, 1910
Died: April 15, 1986
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 88

Related Topics

Men World Knows Betrayal Ifs May Body Evil Jean Genet Littles People Solitude Want Crime Flower Language Made Moments Murderer Order

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Books & Sources

The thief's journalRelated source material

Our Lady of the FlowersRelated source material

The selected writings of Jean GenetRelated source material

Prisoner of LoveRelated source material

The BalconyRelated source material

Notre Dame Des Fleurs.Related source material

QuerelleRelated source material

The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine ScenesRelated source material

The Blacks: A Clown ShowRelated source material

Funeral RitesRelated source material

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