An avant-garde man is like an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying, against which he rebels; for like any system of govern...ment, an established form of expression is also a form of oppression. The avant-garde man is the opponent of an existing system.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a certain kind of person who is so dominated by the desire to be loved for himself alone that he has constantly to test t...hose around him by tiresome behavior; what he says and does must be admired, not because it is intrinsically admirable, but because it is his remark, his act. Does not this explain a good deal of avant-garde art?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Se bella piu satore, je notre so catore, Je notre qui cavore, je la qu', la qui, la quai!... Le spinash or le busho, cigaretto toto bello, Ce rakish spagoletto, si la tu, la tu, la tua! Senora pelefima, voulez-vous le taximeter, La zionta sur le tita, tu le tu le tu le wa!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Life is difficult for those who have the daring to first set out on an unknown road. The avant-garde always has a bad time of it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Et Saint Apollinaire, raide et ascétique, Vieille usine désaffectée de Dieu, tient encore... Dans ses pierres éecroulantes la forme précise de Byzance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
An old French sentence says, "God works in moments,"M"En peu d'heure Dieu labeure." We ask for long life, but 't is deep life, or ...grand moments, that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Consider the relationship of Hollywood and Broadway. In the twenties, the two were sharply differentiated, movies being produced f...or the masses of the hinterland, theatre for an upper-class New York audience. The theatre was High Culture, mostly of the Academic variety (Theatre Guild) but with some spark of Avant-garde fire (the "little" or "experimental" theatre movement). The movies were definitely Mass Culture, mostly very bad but with some leaven of Avant-gardism (Griffiths, Stroheim) and Folk Art (Chaplin and other comedians). With the sound film, Broadway and Hollywood drew closer together. Plays are now produced mainly to sell the movie rights, with many being directly financed by the film companies. The merger has standardized the theatre to such an extent that even the early Theatre Guild seems vital in retrospect, while hardly a trace of the "experimental" theatre is left. And what have the movies gained? They are more sophisticated, the acting is subtler, the sets in better taste. But they too have become standardized: they are never as awful as they often were in the old days, but they are never as good either. They are better entertainment and worse art.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Comme un fou se croit Dieu, nous nous croyons mortels. (As a madman believes himself to be God, we believe ourselves to be mortal....)LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »