Peter Weiss Quotes
November 8, 1916 – 10 May 1982
More Peter Weiss Quotes
In Dante the hero would rather flee and renounce the tempting embrace instead of yielding to his desires and enduring the attendant dangers.
Peter Weiss— Dante (written 1963, published 2003)
Only in his poetry did he have the courage to love.
Peter Weiss— Dante (written 1963, published 2003)
We've got rights the right to starve We've got jobs waiting for work We're all brothers lousy and dirty We're all free and equal to die like dogs
Peter Weiss— Patients, act 1, scene 6 (p. 11)
Every death even the cruellest death drowns in the total indifference of Nature Nature herself would watch unmoved if we destroyed the entire human race I hate Nature this passionless spectator this unbreakable iceberg-face that can bear everything this goads us to greater and greater acts
Peter Weiss— Sade, act 1, scene 12 (p. 24)
Against Nature's silence I use action In the vast indifference I invent a meaning I don't watch unmoved I intervene and say that this and this are wrong and I work to alter them and improve them The important thing is to pull yourself up by your own hair to turn yourself inside out and see the whole world with fresh eyes
Peter Weiss— Marat, act 1, scene 12 (pp. 24-25) QOTD 2007·11·08 Sound file
So the poor instead of bread made do with a picture of the bleeding scourged and nailed-up Christ and prayed to that image of their helplessness
Peter Weiss— Marat, act 1, scene 13 (pp. 28-29)
Singers: We've got nothing always had nothing nothing but holes and millions of them Kokol: Living in holes Polpoch: Dying in holes Cucurucu: Holes in our bellies Rossignol: and holes in our clothes
Peter Weiss— act 1, scene 16 (p. 35)
Once and for all the idea of glorious victories won by the glorious army must be wiped out Neither side is glorious On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants and they all want the same thing Not to lie under the earth but to walk upon it without crutches
Peter Weiss— Roux, act 1, scene 19 (p. 45)
And now Marat now I see where this revolution is heading To the withering of the individual man and a slow merging into uniformity to the death of choice to self denial to deadly weakness in a state which has no contract with individuals but which is impregnable
Peter Weiss— Sade, act 1, scene 20 (p. 49)
What has gone wrong with the men who are ruling I'd like to know who they think they are fooling They told us that torture was over and gone but everyone knows the same torture goes on
Peter Weiss— Singers, act 1, scene 24 (p. 58)
Long ago I abandoned my masterpiece a roll of paper thirty yards long which I filled completely with minute handwriting in my dungeon years ago It vanished when the Bastille fell it vanished as everything written everything thought and planned will disappear
Peter Weiss— Sade, act 2, scene 28 (p. 82)
What's the point of a revolution without general copulation copulation copulation
Peter Weiss— Chorus, act 2, scene 30 (p. 92)
Fight on land and sea All men want to be free If they don't never mind we'll abolish all mankind
Peter Weiss— Singers and Patients, act 2, scene 31 (p. 98)
We can say what we like without favour or fear and what we can't say we can breathe in your ear
Peter Weiss— Singers, act 2, scene 33 (p. 100)
I've twisted and turned them every way, And can see no ending to our play.
Peter Weiss— Sade, epilogue
