Quotes from Anthony Marais

To conceive of a god in one's image is already quite a feat for inflated egos. To imagine, however, that this likeness has chosen your generation amongst the thousands for ending the party is to bring the egocentrism to new heights.

Stereotypes are based on the idea that two heads are bigger than one.

The closer art reflects reality, the less artistic it becomes. Art is most enticing when it mimics life as a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing. The contrary is always a grave disappointment.

Laughing is the body's approval of the absurd.

A joke is a question of mind over manner.

Gape long enough into a looking glass and you'll eventually see beauty. The same can be said of self-analysis, and as soon as one apes oneself, a second monkey is born.

To measure up takes skill, but to err is an art.

To imagine the world without gods and religion is reasonable enough; to imagine mankind without them is an entirely different matter.

Is it not ignorance that we share? A lie takes two. The truth we find alone.

Just because one is born in sin is no reason to brag about it.

Reality is fatal whereas fantasy is something to die for.

When hunting a Maltese Falcon, catch it, but don't scratch it!

Race should be seen in one way, and one way only: on your marks, get set, go!

Culture preaches monogamy while Nature repeats it—over and over again.

Many humans make the mistake of fighting for race when it's the species driving our genes. And there is only one weapon to fight for species: the brain.

Proximity to reality induces feelings of emptiness, horror and depression. Do not approach it alone.

So many fear death—spending their precious waking hours discussing it—while failing to notice that deep sleep is no different. It's as if they don't hear Mother Nature telling them not to worry every day.

Cockroach: What is war? Man: How we lost the human race.

Fireworks: we shoot them off gaily while our dogs hide under the bed. Philosophers are dogs!

In California depth is measured in feet: six feet on one end of the pool and three feet on the other.

No artist is ever happy with all the work they produce, so why should their critics be? Let artists be revered for their best works of art—even if it happens but once in a lifetime—and forget about the rest. All too often art is a wondrous accident, and it is folly to seek genius in its maker.

On auteur theory: never has a critical movement so thoroughly ignored the one-hit wonders of its artform. Imagine music without these gems—half of pop rock would be gone and musicologists would have nothing to dig up!

Any psyche, conscious of itself, will revolt against the shape, size or color of the body in which it dwells; this is healthy—for that body, in fact, not only reminds the psyche of its mortality, it deprives it of its individuality, binding it to a group. Accordingly, crimes of racial violence outrage not only the victims, but all individuals. Apathy, in this case, is a sad indication that you are not an individual.

On language—from the mother tongue came our father's sins.