Andre Breton
Andre Breton
André Bretonwas a French writer, poet, anarchist and anti-fascist. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifestoof 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth19 February 1896
CountryFrance
love affair desperate
If I place love above everything, it is because for me it is the most desperate, the most despairing state of affairs imaginable.
discipline lines moral
If surrealism ever comes to adopt a particular line of moral conduct, it has only to accept the discipline that Picasso has accepted and will continue to accept.
painting metaphor modern
Under his (Marc Chagall, ed.) sole impulse metaphor made its triumphal entry into modern painting.
eye mirrors roles
The eye is not open when it is limited to the passive role of a mirror... if it has only the capacity to reflect.
thinking sight looks
I find it impossible to think of a picture save as a window, and my first concern about a window is to find out what it looks out on... and there is nothing I love so much as something which stretches away from me out of sight.
book names knowing
I insist on knowing the names, on being interested only in books left ajar, like doors; I will not go looking for keys.
steps greatest-gifts you-choose
Life’s greatest gift is the freedom it leaves you to step out of it whenever you choose.
reality brushes process
Humor (is) the process that allows one to brush reality aside when it gets too distressing.
past two intellectual
Past and future monopolize the poet’s sensory and intellectual faculties, detached from the immediate spectacle. These two philtres become utterly clear the moment one stops being hypnotized by the cloudy precipitate constituted by the world of today.
ends breaths
...with the end of my breath, which is the beginning of yours.
light sun poor
It is more or less a given that nothing is less favorable to clairvoyance than the bright sun: physical light and mental light coexist on very poor terms.
surrealism subjects surround
Nothing that surrounds us is object, all is subject.
men reflection important
The important thing is that man is lost in time, in the moment that immediately precedes him - which only attests, by reflection, to the fact that he is lost in the moment that follows
beautiful opposites trials
At the word witch, we imagine the horrible old crones from Macbeth. But the cruel trials witches suffered teach us the opposite. Many perished precisely because they were young and beautiful.