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Surrealism Quotes

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Surrealism Quotes

“In our modern world, this elemental quality of storytelling is denied. We live today in a world in which everything has its place and function and nothing is left out of place. Storytelling is thus at a discount and like everything else in a world ruled by the laws of exchange value, literature is required to submit itself to the requirements of the market and must learn, like any other commodity, to adapt and serve needs that lie outside of itself and its concrete value. It is forced to stand not for itself but for an ideological cause of one sort or another, whether it be political, social or literary. It cannot exist for itself: like everything else it has to be justified. And for this very reason the power of storytelling is automatically devalued. Literature is reduced to the status of complimentary utilitarian functions: as a pastime to provide distraction and entertainment, or as a heightened activity that would claim to explore 'great truths' about the human condition.”

WritingArtStoriesLiteratureEntertainmentWritersCommoditySurrealism
Book:Dedalus Book of Surrealism 2: The Myth of the World
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“She had poofy, teased-out brown hair that bounced off her shoulders with every high-flying skip and on her t-shirt was a spiraled sun with little wavy lines jumping off it to match the little wavy distortions in the air that were jumping off her. It was pure, unbridled energy and the sound of it hummed in his ears like when standing dangerously near a power transformer. Or maybe he was witnessing the origin story of the world’s first real superhero, and if so, she was probably going to draw her powers from the electromagnetic field itself.”

EccentricSurrealismEccentricitySpeculative FictionWhimsicalWhimsySurrealisticGenre BendingCross GenreGenre Blending
Book:The Subtle Cause
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“The blast blew a hole in the smack middle of the strange Utopia vision before him and shook the dust out of the plywood roof which rained down on his head in a barrage of spiraled tendrils. It was through a fit of coughing and ears ringing that Jarvis had returned to himself. Spirit, mind and body reuniting in a Pentecostal collision. Once again, he was immersed in that role he could not seem to escape.”

SurrealSurrealismSpeculative FictionSurrealisticGenre BendingCross Genre
Book:The Subtle Cause
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“Interstellar Corduroy Roy by Stewart Stafford Taunted since he was a boy, Thorn-crowned “Corduroy Roy”, Hurled across sanity’s border, A reluctant thundercloud hoarder. His spacesuit? Pants! - Shade? Maroon! Playing soccer-tennis on the moon, Astronaut dust, his alma mater, Hitched to Earth in a pocket crater. Leapfrogged back to terra firma, Just in time for his dog’s dewormer, Gravity’s cords in the machine, unclean, Freed himself from the lunar silt routine. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

MoonExistentialismBullyingSurrealismWhimsicalAbsurdismDark PoetryStewart StaffordBathosPsychological Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“This fetishistic transmutation separates Warhol from Duchamp and all his predecessors. For Duchamp, Dada, the Surrealists and all who worked to deconstruct representation and smash the work of art are still part of an avant-garde, and belong, in one way or another, to the critical utopia. For us moderns, at any rate, art has ceased to be an illusion; it has become an idea. It is no longer idolatric now, but critical and utopian, even when -- particularly when -- it demystifies its object or when, with Duchamp, it aestheticizes at a stroke, with its bottle-rack, the whole field of daily reality. This is still true of a whole segment of Pop Art, with its lyrical vision of popcorn or comic strips. Banality here becomes the criterion of aesthetic salvation, the means of exalting the creative subjectivity of the artist. Obliterating the object the better to mark out the ideal space of art and the ideal position of the subject. But Warhol belongs to no avant-garde and to no utopia. And if he settles utopia's hash, he does so because, instead of projecting it elsewhere, he takes up residence directly at its heart, that is, at the heart of nowhere. He is himself this no place: this is how he traverses the space of the avant-garde and, at a stroke, completes the cycle of the aesthetic. This is how he at last liberates us from art and its critical utopia.”

SurrealismPop ArtDadaismAndy WarholDuchamp
Book:The Perfect Crime
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“The plants in the garden - the aloes, the almond tree, the rose tree and the iris - were afraid of her. The flowers withered under her breath and the touch of her hand was leprous for the leaves. The plants whose growth is belief, whose breathing is hope, whose immobility is confidence and whose calyx is prayer, the plants who kept watch into the night, hated this women with the secret force of stars.”

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Author:Hendrik Cramer
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“The real importance of automatism lay in the fact that it led to a different relation between the artist and the creative act. Where the artist had traditionally been seen as someone who invents a personal world, bringing into being something unique to his own 'genius', the surrealists conceived themselves as explorers and researchers rather than 'artist' in the traditional sense and it was discovery rather than invention that became crucial for them.”

ArtistCreativitySurrealismAutomatism
Book:Dedalus Book of Surrealism 2: The Myth of the World
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“More precisely, it is a question of dissolving contradictions in the fires of love and desire and of demolishing the walls of death. Magic rites, primitive or naïve civilizations, alchemy, the language of flowers, fire, or sleepless nights, are so many miraculous stages on the way to unity and the philosophers’ stone. If surrealism did not change the world, it furnished it with a few strange myths which partly justified Nietzsche’s announcement of the return of the Greeks. Only partly, because he was referring to unenlightened Greece, the Greece of mysteries and dark gods. Finally, just as Nietzsche’s experience culminated in the acceptance of the light of day, surrealist experience culminates in the exaltation of the darkness of night, the agonized and obstinate cult of the tempest. Breton, according to his own statements, understood that, despite everything, life was a gift. But his compliance could never shed the full light of day, the light that all of us need.”

GreekSurrealismNietzscheAndré BretonDark Greek
Book:The Rebel
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“Quietus Interruptus by Stewart Stafford I've just seen a live mugshot, A home intruder demands I know, Crack out knuckle-dusters or mace, Miscreant justice cold and slow. Should I invite him in to breakfast? Serve rich Eggs à la Pepper Spray! Thump him with my coffee mug, To end this castle siege for the day. An amateur matador from this bull fled, I see frosted breath in a neighbour’s garden, Shirked his curtain call in a magenta dawn, Not even a disingenuous “I beg your pardon!” © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

CrimeDark HumorSelf DefenseSurrealismTrue StoryPsychological ThrillerRobberyBurglaryHome InvasionNoir Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Same Old, Game Old by Stewart Stafford On the first day of the new year, Chronos's roulette wheel rolls, Seeing the thermometer do 60, Scraping shadows off the fridge. Teddy bear plays hide-and-seek, With a giant, grey beast that barks, And an elephant with a rainbow gut, But some things should go AWOL Dinner plate talismans bring cheer, Windfall greens and Jupiter peas, Coins tossed in an oracle's grotto, Marching into the fog of life ahead. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”

TimeFutureLuckDinnerNew YearSurrealSurrealismHide And SeekNew Year S DayNew Year Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Cycle of the Midnight Ape by Stewart Stafford Janus creature of paradox, Liquid hostage of conscience, Swinging midnight's ape, On cartwheel chandeliers. This being's bender reveal — Of the existential, maddening itch, To sling aside life’s burdens, And slake its raging thirst. An anthropological anomaly, Naked in its contradictions, A déjà vu loop grinds on, This peerless hellraiser royal. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

IsolationParadoxExcessHuman ConditionSurrealismSocial CommentaryCoping MechanismPhilosophical PoetryComedy And TragedyParty Animals
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Antiseptic Awakening by Stewart Stafford See the rainbow spattered With dark blood moon juice. This creeping haemorrhage, A lacerated spectrum merged. Bruised trickles not halting, Violations in crimson stealth. Impotent, alleged lifeforms, Ashen foot-dragging below. Casually surrendered hues, The arterial strain's zenith. No colour in cheek nor sky, Bleached by antiseptic snow. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

ExistentialismSurrealismColorsDark AcademiaContemporary PoetryContemporary LiteraturePhilosophical PoetryGothic PoetryUrban DecayStewart Stafford
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“The Larktown Savannah by Stewart Stafford Pierce the smog-shrouded end of town, A wheezing, mirthless, blushing clown, On the river, logs and sticks past me flew, Ingredients of a swirling, brownish stew. In the bait shop, the condemned crawl, A carvery pub lunch next door for all, The old cinema’s lights are long-dimmed, A long grass lion’s zebra crossing skimmed. Seagulls bomb the blustery bridge; To the water, as to sunset, the midge; An Elvis impersonator’s sparse crowd tell— Rhinestone saviour in Wharf Street’s hotel. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

Dark HumorSurrealismSlice Of LifeModern PoetryIrish LiteratureA Day In The LifeElvis ImpersonatorIndustrial DecayPenny LaneSeaside Town
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“In his sleep he could hear the horses stepping among the rocks and he could hear them drink from the shallow pools in the dark where the rocks lay smooth and rectilinear as the stones of ancient ruins and the water from their muzzles dripped and rang like water dripping in a well and his sleep he dreamt of horses and the horses in his dream moved gravely among the tilted stones like horses come upon an antique site where some ordering of the world had failed and if anything had been written on the stones the weathers had taken it away again and the horses were wary and moved with great circumspection carrying in their blood as they did the recollection of this and other places where horses once had been and would be again. Finally what he saw in his dream was that the order in the horse's heart was more durable for it was written in a place where no rain could erase it.”

DreamsSurrealismHorses
Book:All the Pretty Horses
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“The Surly Caller by Stewart Stafford Pain - stalker at my door; Resigned admission inside, Drags a chair, fills teary ducts, Drapes tingling spider's webs. Grey vista of a dreaded visit, Common or garden victim by force, Pain is the barb to candied joy; Twin-horned teasing tormentor. In rapid eye movement, we dream, It sleepwalks in my creaking room, I hear stumbling footsteps stir, Claws retract in numbing slumber. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”

PainSufferingDreamsMetaphorSurrealismStalkerPersonificationEmily DickinsonStalkersSadomasochism
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Oh, that is nice, dear,” she said, beaming not only with lips but also with her eyes, “We often see reality in dreams, where we hardly see the purpose in reality.” “Doesn’t it depend on the way we perceive reality?” said the boy “But before that, you must know if it is your reality” “Do we all have the same reality? “The question is, why don’t we?” she said looking into the boy’s eyes.”

LoveRealityImagineDreamsSadnessParadoxPurpose Of LifeDreams QuotesQuestionsSurrealism
Book:Distorted Denouement
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“A Bloodshot Mind's Eye by Stewart Stafford Hyperventilating loudly, Feverish visions crash in, Flinching ever so strongly, A farrago of the brain's bin. Home is sadly unsweetened, Not like old Lynyrd Skynyrd's, Fell into mashed-up bananas, Looking like a lizard's innards. On a plane crashing down fast, Door closed on a switch to cars, A parachute instantly appeared, And I woke from sleep a superstar. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”

DreamSleepDreamsDreamingSurrealSleepingSurrealismSurreal PoetryFever DreamDream Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Unholy by Stewart Stafford Horrors walk from out a dream, Apparitions dare reality’s seam, Gnarly fingers excavate blame, Sanity stolen in a hellish flame. No way to think or even breathe, Or kind worldly goods bequeath, For Time’s skeletal fingers snap, Catching souls in a fiendish trap. Visions boxed, then assail again, A phantom grin is no one’s friend, Gasp out awakening perspiration, Sun falls in creeping desperation. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”

DreamDreamsKarmaNightmareSurrealGothicSurrealismNightmaresApparitionsHorror Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“In this stillness that is at the same time movement, in this darkness that is at the same time light, change is found not in the realm of ideas but in the energizing desire that is realized through precipitation. Desire tends towards its own realization and change takes place when the desire for it shatters the bounds of the possible, breaking the dialectical equilibrium holding together the framework of what is existent. It is at such moments that the imaginary flows into the real and overwhelms it, inundating it until it has been absorbed.”

RealityDesireImaginarySurrealism
Book:Dedalus Book of Surrealism 2: The Myth of the World
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“My idea of a perfect surrealist painting is one in which every detail is perfectly realistic, yet filled with a surrealistic, dreamlike mood. And the viewer himself can't understand why that mood exists, because there are no dripping watches or grotesque shapes as reference points. That is what I'm after: that mood which is apart from everyday life, the type of mood that one experiences at very special moments.”

IdeasMomentsPerfectWatchesSpecialPaintingTypeShapesFilledEverydayDetailsMoodRealisticEveryday LifeViewersSurrealismGrotesqueDrippingSurrealistSpecial Moments
Author:Ian Hornak
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“The essential fault of surrealism is that it invents without discovering. To make a clam play an accordion is to invent not to discover. The observation of the unconscious, so far as it can be observed, should reveal things of which we have previously been unconscious, not the familiar things of which we have been conscious plus imagination.”

ShouldHas BeensPlayImaginationEssentialsConsciousFaultsFamiliarObservationUnconsciousPlusDiscoveringSurrealismAccordionsClamsFamiliar Things
Book:Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose
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