Quotes from book
Saint Genet

Saint Genet
Jean Paul Sartre Original title Saint Genet, comédien et martyr (French, 1952)

Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr is a book by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre about the writer Jean Genet, especially on his The Thief's Journal. It was first published in 1952. Sartre described it as an attempt "to prove that genius is not a gift but the way out that one invents in desperate cases." Sartre also based his character Goetz in his play The Devil and the Good Lord on his analysis of Genet's psychology and morality. Sartre has been credited by David M. Halperin with providing, "a brilliant, subtle, and thoroughgoing study of the unique subjectivity and gender positioning of gay men".


Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“Since he is unable to be the beloved, he will become the lover.”

Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)
Original: (90).

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“It was a constraint; he makes of it his mission”

Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)
Original: (61).

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“in order to make himself thoroughly undesirable, he will speak.”

(463).
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“The live dead-man is dead as a producer and alive insofar as he consumes”

139
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“such mad confidence within despair.”

Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)
Original: (60).

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“The world is sacred because it gives an inkling of a meaning that escapes us”

(280).
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“…inversion…is an outlet that a child discovers when he is suffocating.”

91
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

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