Five Of Antoin Artaud’s Most Interesting Quotes

Only a few of Antoin Artaud’s quotes give us a glimpse of his tragic existence. He was a genius who spent his life creating excellent literature and being locked up in psychiatric hospitals. Many consider him to be the father of modern theater.

Antoin Artaud’s quotes are beautiful. Antoin explored virtually all literary genres, although he became best known as a poet and playwright. In fact, he is known as the creator of the cruelty theater.

It can be said that modern theater rests on the philosophy this extraordinary French writer believed in. Many of Antoin Artaud’s quotes speak specifically of theater, but also of human realities that he discovered during his most difficult times.

When he was four, Artaud suffered from meningitis. When he was nine years old, his sister died suddenly, which put him in a grieving process that he never really got over. It was, perhaps, one of the most difficult experiences that made him such a profound writer. Let’s take a look at Antoin Artaud’s best quote.

This is one of Antoin Artaud’s most beautiful quotes. He associated life with the essential ignorance that characterizes it. We are all born without a clue, without knowing anything, and we die without having answered more than a fraction of the questions we had in mind.

Artaud does not refer to ignorance from an intellectual point of view. That’s why he uses the word ‘burn’. He represents the unknown with a burning flame. We do not know exactly where we are coming from, where we are going or why we are here.

This quote expresses how Artaud really felt about the theater. He always said that words were unnecessary because there were other more effective ways to communicate their feelings and thoughts. One of them was obviously the theater.

He loved the theater and hated the movie. He later saw it as “harmless poison”, negative to his innermost being but without causing serious harm. For Antoin Artaud, theater was the best way to express himself. It was created to teach people about death, suffering and determination.

Many of Antoin Artaud’s quotes reveal an intense and almost violent spirit. His childhood illness made him an extremely nervous individual. In fact, over time, he developed paranoid illusions about it.

This explains why Antoin spent  many years in psychiatric hospitals. Above all, this quote, even if expressed in an aggressive way, reveals a true, raw message. Human beings are not only sublime, they are also prosaic and disgusting.

Antoin Artaud was very interested  in learning all about mysterious phenomena. He was very devoted to religion during his childhood and generally during his youth. Several years later, he felt the need to search for a new kind of spiritualism, which led him to live in the Tarahumara community in Mexico.

His particular view of life made him very sensitive to the most subtle phenomena. He became deeply involved in the Tarahumara community, despite the language barriers. Perhaps this quote highlights the fact that words are just a way to communicate and understand those around you.

Artaud was above all an explorer of the human spirit. After his time in Mexico, he delved into certain esoteric practices, such as astrology, tarot, and numerology. His obsession with these subjects once again led him to a state of extreme nervousness.

In 1938 he was deported from Ireland to France for having “exceeded the limits of marginality”. He then spent nine years in a psychiatric hospital. He suffered a lot during this time. All these experiences confirmed his hatred of psychiatry.

Antoin Artaud died in 1943 after undergoing several electroconvulsive treatments that destroyed him both physically and mentally. Thanks to a group of friends, he was able to spend the last three years of his life far from mental institutions.