Quotes from Anthony Marais

Atheism is having the weight of doubt lifted, just to be replaced with the weight of mortality.

White and black: with these two categories the diversity of a thousand ethnicities is lost.

If culture were clothing, it would be more like negligee than a parka. That's why it's so sexy.

The profound experience of childbirth does not produce profound people. If this were so, the guy with ten kids would be a prophet and priests would be out of work.

Whereas atheism is the child who left home, Satanism looks sillier with every year it sticks around poking fun at mom and dad.

Identity seems to be non-existent at a personal level—at best we can end up in a minority, and those who discuss it most are just those people who are aware of its absence in themselves.

It's not words, but years we should be editing. Remember: time spent on bad art is a form of redundancy, doing the same thing twice is a form of tautology, and wasting precious moments complaining about life is a form of pleonasm. We should all learn to live our lives concisely.

It could be said that the discovery of ourselves is at the heart of what we call enlightenment, which is to say that that big, bright light at the end of the tunnel is us. The problem is that no one wants to discover that we're no better or no worse than the rest—indeed, to discover that we're no different than the rest—because that's no fun.

To associate art with the artist is to forfeit art, because at this moment we are pushed into the arena of self-expression, and can be recognized only by what differentiates us from others.

Modernity of form is the style of old fogies yet to be.

There may be deep thought, but deep people don't exist. Our bodies must float on the surface, otherwise we drown.

Writers are liars trying to come clean. That's why the best ones are the most tragic.

Literature is the product of a deep-seated need for honesty. Hence, those who lie most are struck most deeply by it, and those who are honest have no need for it.

Words are a means to an end. Those who chase after them inevitably fail to reach that end.

Any psyche, conscious of itself, will revolt against the shape, size or color of the body in which it dwells; this 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.

The desire for continuity is a side-effect of the consciousness of mortality. The desire for meaning is a side-effect of the consciousness of triviality. Hence, consciousness is paid for with an exaggerated focus on sex and work; and those of us who ponder life find these two topics creeping into every discussion.

A creative life has nothing to do with where you're from or how much money you earn. It's merely a reflection of the creative intellect.

So many dream of travel without having an idea of its reality: a language sounds exotic only when you don't understand it, and a culture appears better than your own only when you aren't in it.

Human nature is, and will always be, indelibly stamped by weakness. Indeed, we are so bound to our own defeat that it has become the means of our development.

The awe-inspiring beauty of nature is nothing more than being flabbergasted by our ignorance of it. Good art produces the same effect; and the worst thing an artist can do is to follow the herd, because domesticated art is about as dynamic as a domesticated animal.

It goes without saying that mastering a skill engenders a sense of satisfaction, but the feeling is ephemeral and dissipates once on the plateau of competency; because this kind of satisfaction is directed toward yourself, whereas the investment of learning about the world is repaid in love—a love of the world, a joy of living, which is permanent and will last till the grave.

If an artist wants to be original, he should not look to art for inspiration, for art seeks its model in life, not art—and only life is rich enough to simulate originality.

Physiologically, the union of two opposites is a pleasurable affair. Why should the psyche be any different?

The price of maturity is exorbitant these days. Paying for wisdom with money is one thing, but when time becomes the currency, it's your life at stake.