André Breton

Born 19 February 1896 · Died 28 September 1966

From Tinchebray, Normandy, France · Nationality: France · Writes fiction and nonfiction

French writer and poet, co-founder of Surrealism

Quotes

“La beauté sera CONVULSIVE ou ne sera pas.”
1920's
“Pure psychic automatism, by which one seeks to express, be it verbally, in writing, or in any other manner, (is) the real working of the mind. Dictated by the unconsciousness, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, and free from aesthetic or moral preoccupations.”
1920's
“I could spend my whole life prying loose the secrets of the insane. These people are honest to a fault, and their naivety has no peer but my own.”
Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924
“A story is told according to which Saint-Pol-Roux, in times gone by, used to have a notice posted on the door of his manor house in Camaret, every evening before he went to sleep, which read: ‘THE POET IS WORKING’.”
Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924
“Oneiric values have definitely won out over the others, and I maintain that anyone who still refuses to see, for instance, a horse galloping on a tomato, must be an idiot.”
after 1930

Books by André Breton in order

Books by André Breton in the order they were published, from Nadja (1928) to André Breton (2003).