The Balcony Quotes

“If we behave like those on the other side, then we are the other side. Instead of changing the world, all we'll achieve is a reflection of the one we want to destroy.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“It's the hour when night breaks away from the day, my dove, let me go.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“The pimp has a grin, never a smile.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“It's a true image, born of a false spectacle.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“One can hear all that's going on in the street. Which means that from the street one can hear what's going on in this house.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“I love you because you're tender and sweet, you the hardest and sternest of men. And your sweetness and tenderness are such that they make you as light as a shred of tulle, subtle as a flake of mist, airy as a caprice. Your thick muscles, your arms, your thighs, your hands, are more unreal than the melting of day into night. You envelop me and I contain you.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“Would it perturb you to see things as they are? To gaze at the world tranquilly and accept responsibility for your gaze, whatever it might see?”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“You must now go home, where everything -- you can be quite sure -- will be falser than here....You must go now. You'll leave by the right, through the alley....”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony

“Besides, we couldn't cuddle each other eternally. You don't know what I was already secretly moving towards when I was in your arms.”
― Jean Genet, The Balcony