Quotes from Roland Barthes

Every passion, ultimately, has its spectator...no oblation without a final theater: the sign is always victorious.

In the code of the Japanese haiku, there must always be a word which refers back to the time of day and to the year; this is the *kigo* the season word. Amorous notation notation retains the *kigo*that faint allusion to the rain, to the evening, to the light, to everything that envelops, diffuses.

I want you to know that I don't want to show my feelings; that is the message I address to the other...I advance pointing to my mask.

The world is full of indiscreet neighbors with whom I must share the other. The world is in fact just that : an obligation to share. The world ( the worldly ) is my rival. . . You belong to me as well, the world says.

Amour au bandeau: Ce proverbe est faux. L'amour ouvre grand les yeux, il rend clairvoyant:J'ai, de toi, sur toi, le savoir absolu. Rapport du clerc au maître; tu as tout pouvoir sur moi, mais j'ai tout savoir sur toi.

I love you is in my head; but I imprison it behind my lips. I do not divulge. I say silently to who is no longer or is not yet the other: *I keep myself from loving you*

There are nightmares in which the Mother appears, her face hardened into a cold and severe expression. The fade-out of the loved object is the terrifying return of the Wicked Mother, the inexplicable retreat of love, the well-known abandonment of which the Mystics complain : God exists, the Mother is present, but they no longer love.

Wie ein schlechter Konzertsaal ist auch der affektive Raum mit toten Winkeln durchsetzt, in die der Klang nicht mehr hineinreicht. Ist der vollkommene Gesprächspartner, der Freund, also nicht der, der in ihrem Umkreis die größtmögliche Resonanz schafft? Laßt sich Freundschaft nicht als ein Raum totaler Klangfülle beschreiben?

Po mome ukusu, ništa nije indiskretnije od posmatranja nekog dok piše: još je indiskretnije videti nekog da ?ita jedva primetno mi?u?i usnama. Markizu de Sadu je nedostajao taj prizor (za njega isuviše blag): uhvatiti eksplozije na usnama onog koji poluglasno ?ita neki tekst u procesu artikulisanja. Ništa od te minule erotike više nije mogu?e: danas su pisanje i ?itanje skrovite prakse.

3 de abril de 1978 Desesperación: la palabra es demasiado teatral, forma parte del lenguaje. Una piedra.

Every object in the world can pass from a closed, silent existence to an oral state, open to appropriation by society, for there is no law, whether natural or not, which forbids talking about things

He who reads a story only once is condemned to read the same story his whole life.

The New is not a fashion, it is a value.

To dope the racer is as criminal, as sacrilegious, as trying to imitate God; it is stealing from God the privilege of the spark.

What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.

For the theatre one needs long arms; it is better to have them too long than too short. An artiste with short arms can never, never make a fine gesture.

What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.

Pleasure is continually disappointed, reduced, deflated, in favor of strong, noble values: Truth, Death, Progress, Struggle, Joy, etc. Its victorious rival is Desire: we are always being told about Desire, never about Pleasure.

Literature is the question minus the answer.

There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.

Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.

There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it.

Myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion.

This is a perfect world I'm riding on an incline I'm staring in your face You'll photograph mine