“I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.”

—  Antonin Artaud

Van Gogh, the Man Suicided by Society (1947)

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 myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversati…" by Antonin Artaud?
Antonin Artaud photo
Antonin Artaud 44
French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre direc… 1896–1948

Related quotes

Mitch Albom photo

“I thought about the days i had handed over to a bottle.. the nights i can't remember.. the mornings i slept thru.. all the time spent running from myself.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

“Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

Trinny Woodall photo

“I've been nine stone for 20 years, I always eat what I want, it's not an issue for me. But it pisses me off - because if people did decide that I starved myself, it would have a direct consequence on what we advocate!”

Trinny Woodall (1964) English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author

Regarding Woodall's reaction to claims she is too skinny; as quoted in "God's gift to women" by Barbara Ellen in The Guardian (16 September 2007)

John Keats photo

“I have loved the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

To Fanny Brawne (c. February 1820)
Letters (1817–1820)
Context: "If I should die," said I to myself, "I have left no immortal work behind me — nothing to make my friends proud of my memory — but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered."

George W. Bush photo

“As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before Nine-Eleven. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2009, Farewell speech to the nation (January 2009)

Stephen Fry photo

“I like to wake up each morning and not know what I think, that I may reinvent myself in some way.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist
John Frusciante photo

“I can't say that I'm crazy, you know, about watching this. I don't like the person who I was back at this time, and-and, uh… I think I had all my priorities in the wrong places and I think if I were to spend to much time playin guitar as I did picking out stupid shorts and stupid hats and stupid, you know, overcoats, I would've… I would've been able to write some good songs, you know? I can't watch this version of myself and be at all happy about it. I want to… I want to strangle myself when I see this video. I was 18 years old. 18-year-old that deserved to be slapped upside his head.”

John Frusciante (1970) American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer

On "Higher Ground" video audio commentary - Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Videos

Anne Sexton photo

“But suicides have a special language.
Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.

Twice I have so simply declared myself,
have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy,
have taken on his craft, his magic.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States
Antonin Artaud photo

“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

Si je me tue ce ne sera pas pour me détruire, mais pour me reconstituer, le suicide ne sera pour moi qu’un moyen de me reconquérir violemment, de faire brutalement irruption dans mon être, de devancer l’avance incertaine de Dieu. Par le suicide, je réintroduis mon dessin dans la nature, je donne pour la première fois aux choses la forme de ma volonté.
“On Suicide,” no. 1, Le Disque Vert (1925).

Leonard Cohen photo

“I feel that, you know, the enormous luck I've had in being able to make a living, and to never have had to have written one word that I didn't want to write, to be able to have satisfied that dictum I set for myself, which was not to work for pay, but to be paid for my work — just to be able to satisfy those standards that I set for myself has been an enormous privilege.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Interview with BBC Radio 1FM (1994)

Related topics