Alfred Jarry Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

It is because the public are a mass inert, obtuse, and passive that they need to be shaken up from time to time so that we can tell from their bear-like grunts where they are and also where they stand. They are pretty harmless, in spite of their numbers, because they are fighting against intelligence.

Alfred Jarry
To keep up even a worthwhile tradition means vitiating the idea behind it which must necessarily be in a constant state of evolution: it is mad to try to express new feelings in a mummified form.

Alfred Jarry
We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.

Alfred Jarry
God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.

Alfred Jarry
The theater, bringing impersonal masks to life, is only for those who are virile enough to create new life: either as a conflict of passions subtler than those we already know, or as a complete new character.

Alfred Jarry
The applause of silence is the only kind that counts.

Alfred Jarry
Duration is the transformation of a succession into a reversion. In other words: THE BECOMING OF A MEMORY.

Alfred Jarry
The virtue of dress rehearsals is that they are a free show for a select group of artists and friends of the author, and where for one unique evening the audience is almost expurgated of idiots.

Alfred Jarry
Hey! Not so fast, or we might arrive on time. Freedom means never arriving on time—never, never!

Alfred Jarry
You're looking exceptionally ugly tonight, Madam, is it because we have company?

Alfred Jarry