Roland Barthes Quotes

French - Critic November 12, 1915 - March 26, 1980

What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth.

Time, Live, Truth, Sarcasm, Well, May

The skyscraper establishes the block, the block creates the street, the street offers itself to man.

Man, Street, Block, Itself, Skyscraper

Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.

Words, Skin, Language, Desire, Against

Literature is the question minus the answer.

Literature, Answer, Question, Minus

To try to write love is to confront the muck of language: that region of hysteria where language is both too much and too little, excessive and impoverished.

Love, Love Is, Language, Try, Too Much

I have tried to be as eclectic as I possibly can with my professional life, and so far it's been pretty fun.

Life, Fun, Professional, Pretty, Tried

To eat steak rare... represents both a nature and a morality.

Nature, Eat, Morality, Rare, Steak, Both

There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it.

Day, Society, Way, Escape, Present, Only

Myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion.

Lie, Confession, Myth, Neither, Nor

Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.

Power, Speech, Forget, Language, See

The New is not a fashion, it is a value.

Fashion, Value, New

The politician being interviewed clearly takes a great deal of trouble to imagine an ending to his sentence: and if he stopped short? His entire policy would be jeopardized!

Great, Ending, Short, Trouble, Policy

For the theatre one needs long arms; it is better to have them too long than too short. An artiste with short arms can never, never make a fine gesture.

Theatre, Long, Better, Short, Never

The photographic image... is a message without a code.

Without, Image, Message, Code

A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see.

Always, See, Photograph, Invisible

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

Power, Blame, Guilt, Call, Discourse

What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.

Passion, Image, Wants, Itself, Public

Through the mythology of Einstein, the world blissfully regained the image of knowledge reduced to a formula.

Knowledge, World, Image, Through

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition... always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.

Culture, New, Always, Meaning, News

Literature is without proofs. By which it must be understood that it cannot prove, not only what it says, but even that it is worth the trouble of saying it.

Saying, Worth, Literature, Prove, Only

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