Contemporary industrial society is now characterised more than ever by "the need for stupefying work where it is no longer a real necessity."

The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality to define what is real.

Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination.

Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world.

The spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the control.

The Superego, in censoring the unconscious and in implanting conscience, also censors the censor.

Most people are afraid of freedom. They are conditioned to be afraid of it.

There is no free society without silence, without the internal and external spaces of solitude in which the individual freedom can develop.

The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value counts. On it centers the rationality of the status quo, and all alien rationality is bent to It.

Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.

Entertainment and learning are not opposites; entertainment may be the most effective mode of learning.

Two friends... let's put them place... they have never been in jail, give them a knife some reasonable conflicts some doubts and watch the effect.

No one ever really 'learns' from history, because choices never present themselves in exactly the same way, and because you can always choose similarities and differences to fit current needs.

Why is Schoenberg's Music so Hard to Understand?

Soap Actors are fun and interesting. They all have something special that you want to be around.

Take the best that exists and make it better.

Focus on winning the contest with yourself.

In the end I would rather wonder than know

Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener. The latter must prepare to receive it according to the motion it takes.

People should stop poking fun at other people and worry about themselves. The reality is that my movies all have made money.

Desire disappears as you become more and more aware. When awareness is one hundred percent, there is no desire at all.