Antonin Artaud’s Phrases For Dreaming

Antonin Artaud’s phrases are full of poetry and vitality. They are the fruit of a creator who has explored virtually all literary genres, although he only gained fame as a poet and playwright. In fact, he is known for being the inventor of the theater of cruelty.

It could be said that all modern theater is based on the imprint given by this extraordinary French writer.  Many of Antonin Artaud’s phrases speak of theater, but also of other human realities that he touched, due to an existence charged with suffering.

At the age of 4, Artaud fell ill with meningitis, a disease that marked him throughout his life. At the age of 9, his sister died suddenly and he went through a grieving process that was never completely overcome. Perhaps it was these difficult experiences that made him a writer of profound sensitivity and lucidity.

Below we present some of Antonin Artaud’s phrases among the most famous.

Phrases by Antonin Artaud

1. What is it to live?

One of the most beautiful phrases of Antonin Artaud. In it coexist life and the essential ignorance that characterizes it. We are born without knowing anything and we die having answered only a small part of those questions that haunt us.

Artaud does not speak of intellectual ignorance, which is why he chooses the word “burning”. All this not knowing is a burning flame. We don’t know exactly where we come from, where we are going, much less why we are here.

2. Cinema, a drug

This sentence is an exaltation and a criticism of the cinema. Artaud was a man of the theater and viewed the boom in cinema with a certain skepticism. He felt that this mediation of the screen minimized the spectacle.

For this reason he attributes an ambiguous value to this art form. He defines it as “morphine”, a harmful substance and at the same time a bearer of well-being. He describes cinema as a harmless poison: deep down it is negative, but it does not cause serious damage. 

3. Being

There are many phrases by Antonin Artaud in which the author’s intense and almost violent spirit is revealed. The illness in childhood made him a nervous person, who over time began to develop paranoid delusions. 

For this reason, Artaud spent some time hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals. This quote, although aggressively expressed, reveals a profoundly human message. Being is not only something sublime, but also trivial and vulgar. 

4. The language of words

Antonin Artaud was also intensely interested in mystical phenomena. During his childhood and youth he was particularly devoted to religion. Later, he learned new forms of spiritual research, which also led him to live with the community of Tarahumara, Mexico.

His outlook on life made him particularly sensitive to usually imperceptible phenomena. He totally identified with the Tarahumara culture, despite the language barrier. Perhaps for this reason with his quote he reminds us that words are just one of the many existing means to communicate and generate understanding.

5. The only occupation

Artaud was an explorer of the human spirit. After his stay in Mexico, he ventured into some esoteric practices, such as the Tarot, astrology and numerology. His obsession with these issues again led him to a state of extreme nervousness.

In 1938 he was deported from Ireland to France for having “exceeded the limits of marginalization”. Then, he spent nine years hospitalized in various psychiatric hospitals. It was a time of great suffering, which served to intensify his hatred of psychiatry, which he believed responsible for the pain of many human beings.

Antonin Artaud died in 1943 after being subjected to several electroshock operations that weakened him physically and mentally to the end of his strength. Thanks to a group of friends, he was able to spend the last few years away from mental health institutes.