“I believe in the magic and authority of words.”

— René Char

Message as a member of the French resistance, to his superiors in London, insisting that certain codewords "The library is on fire" be changed after a disastrous parachute drop which set a forest on fire and alerted the Gestapo to the location of his group of Maquis fighters, as quoted in René Char : This Smoke That Carried Us : Selected Poems (2004) edited by Susanne Dubroff

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I believe in the magic and authority of words." by René Char?

René Char 4

20th-century French poet 1907–1988

Related quotes

“For now I had begun to believe, despite all the talk of science around me, that there was a magic in spoken words.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man (1952), Chapter 17.

“I just believe, and that's the magic…That's the whole thing, you talk about magic that there's to believe in, and it is there. But most people don't really believe in it.”

Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971) Socialite, actress, model

Edie : Girl On Fire (2006)
Context: But I really, since I exist, at all, I believe that it's possible for people... I've lived through impossible situations. So I believe in it. I just believe, and that's the magic... That's the whole thing, you talk about magic that there's to believe in, and it is there. But most people don't really believe in it. And I refuse, like, since I'm still alive and done the things I've done and seen things and understood things as far as I have, and I am alive, I mean physically intact. When I shouldn't be, according to medical reports and so forth. I mean I should be, not here. That's all there is to it. So the magic's working and it's a rare situation.