“The Poet makes himself a seer through a long, vast and painstaking derangement of all the senses”

“The poet makes himself a voyant through a long, immense reasoned deranging of all his senses. All the forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he tries to find himself, he exhausts in himself all the poisons, to keep only their quintessences.”

“The first study for the man who wants to be a poet is knowledge of himself, complete: he searches for his soul, he inspects it, he puts it to the test, he learns it. As soon as he has learned it, he must cultivate it! I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet becomes a seer through a long, immense, and reasoned derangement of all the senses. All shapes of love suffering, madness. He searches himself, he exhausts all poisons in himself, to keep only the quintessences. Ineffable torture where he needs all his faith, all his superhuman strength, where he becomes among all men the great patient, the great criminal, the great accursed one--and the supreme Scholar! For he reaches the unknown! ....So the poet is actually a thief of Fire!”

“I'm now making myself as scummy as I can. Why? I want to be a poet, and I'm working at turning myself into a seer. You won't understand any of this, and I'm almost incapable of explaining it to you. The idea is to reach the unknown by the derangement of all the senses. It involves enormous suffering, but one must be strong and be a born poet. It's really not my fault.”

“The poet makes himself a seer through a long, tremendous,planned detachment of all his senses. All the forms of love,of suffering, of madness; he himself seeks and in himselfexhausts all poisons, so as to keep only the quintessential.A self torture that takes all his faith, all his superhumanstrength, that makes him, among his fellow men, The SickMan, The Criminal, The Accursed, and The Supreme Sage!For he reaches the unknown! Because he has cultivated hissoul, rich already, more than anyone else and if maddenedin his pursuit, he should in the end lose all understandingof his. . . .”—Arthur Rimbaud”

“I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown.”