The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them. – Jean Genet
What I did not yet know so intensely was the hatred of the white American for the black, a hatred so deep that I wonder if every white man in this country, when he plants a tree, doesnt see Negroes hanging from its branches. – Jean Genet
I recognize in thieves, traitors and murderers, in the ruthless and the cunning, a deep beauty – a sunken beauty. – Jean Genet
A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness. – Jean Genet
I never appreciated positive heroes in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more productive literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are. – Jose Saramago