Crimes of which a people is ashamed constitute its real history. The same is true of man. Jean Genet More Quotes by Jean Genet More Quotes From Jean Genet Worse than not realizing the dreams of your youth, would be to have been young and never dreamed at all. Jean Genet youthwould-bedream The pimp has a grin, never a smile. Jean Genet pimp A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness. Jean Genet dreammenorder Solitude, as I understand it, does not signify an unhappy state, but rather secret royalty, profound incommunicability yet a more or less obscure knowledge of an invulnerable singularity. Jean Genet solitudesecretprofound Perhaps all music, even the newest, is not so much something discovered as something that re-emerges from where it lay buried in the memory, inaudible as a melody cut in a disc of flesh. A composer lets me hear a song that has always been shut up silent within me. Jean Genet musicsongmemories Anyone who hasn't experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all. Jean Genet ecstasybetrayalbetrayed 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. Jean Genet ballswould-beworld There are mornings when all men experience with fatigue a flush of tenderness that makes them horny. Jean Genet hornymorningmen 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 Jean Genet solitudedifferentmen I'm homosexual. How and why are idle questions. It's a little like wanting to know why my eyes are green. Jean Genet lgbtgayeye It's the hour when night breaks away from the day, my dove, let me go. Jean Genet dovehoursnight To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance. Jean Genet harmonyheighttaste 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. Jean Genet reflectionwantworld I leave you free to imagine any dialogue you please. Choose whatever may charm you. Have it, if you like, that they hear the voice of the blood, or that they fall in love at first sight... Conceive the wildest improbabilities. Have it that the depths of their beings are thrilled at accosting each other in slang. Tangle them suddenly in a swift embrace or a brotherly kiss. Do whatever you like. Jean Genet falling-in-lovekissingsight The time for reasoning is past; now's the time to get steamed up and fight like mad. Jean Genet madfightingpast My heart's in my hand, and my hand is pierced, and my hand's in the bag, and the bag is shut, and my heart is caught. Jean Genet bagshearthands Every premeditated murder is always governed by a preparatory ceremonial and is always followed by a propitiatory ceremonial. The meaning of both eludes the murderers mind. Jean Genet eludemurdermind Ah those knock-out body fluids: blood, sperm, tears! Jean Genet bodytearsblood Love makes use of the worst traps. The least noble. The rarest. It exploits coincidence. Jean Genet nobleuselove Added to the moral solitude of the murderer comes the solitude of the artist, which can acknowledge no authority, save that of another artist. Jean Genet moralsolitudeartist
