Michel de Ghelderode > Quotes

“I live outside the world in a universe I myself have created, like a madman or a holy visionary.”
― Michel de Ghelderode, Spells

“The moral of this sad story—and the story of man is always sad, absurd, and void of meaning, as Shakespeare wrote—is that in our atomic and auto-disintegrated age, this age from which dreams and dreamers are banished in favor of the scientific nightmare and the beneficiaries of the future horror, a fellow like Pantagleize remains an archetype, an exemplary man, and a fine example who has nothing to do with that dangerous thing, intelligence, and a great deal to do with that savior, instinct. He is human in an age when all is becoming dehumanized. He is the last poet, and the poet is he who believes in heavenly voices, in revelation, in our divine origin. He is the man who has kept the treasure of his childhood in his heart, and who passes through catastrophes in all artlessness. He is bound to Parsifal by purity, and to Don Quixote by courage and holy madness. And if he dies, it is because, particularly in our time, the Innocents must be slaughtered: that has been the law since the time of Jesus. Amen!...”
― Michel de Ghelderode, PANTAGLEIZE