“And from that came:
Life or Theatre?”

Source: Les Misérables

Quoted in Joan E. Kole, "Theatre and Aging" (2009), p. 1

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Theater

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)
Context: In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which happens in it must extend into life…. The Theatre of the Oppressed is located precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become integrated into reality, into life. Now in 1992, when so many certainties have become so many doubts, when so many dreams have withered on exposure to sunlight, and so many hopes have become as many deceptions – now that we are living through times and situations of great perplexity, full of doubts and uncertainties, now more than ever I believe it is time for a theatre which, at its best, will ask the right questions at the right times. Let us be democratic and ask our audiences to tell us their desires, and let us show them alternatives. Let us hope that one day – please, not too far in the future – we’ll be able to convince or force our governments, our leaders, to do the same; to ask their audiences – us – what they should do, so as to make this world a place to live and be happy in – yes, it is possible – rather than just a vast market in which we sell our goods and our souls. Let’s hope. Let’s work for it!

Source: On Writing (2002)

Ólafur talking to Þórunn
Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Two: The Palace of the Summerland

Source: A New Model of the Universe (1932), p. 242

An American Prayer (1978)