Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derridawas a French philosopher, born in Algeria. Derrida is best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, which he discussed in numerous texts, and developed in the context of phenomenology. He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth15 July 1930
writing secret facts
No one will ever know from what secret I am writing and the fact that I say so changes nothing.
believe writing thinking
I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner.
writing feelings stronger
Actually, when I write, there is a feeling of necessity, of something that is stronger than myself that demands that I must write as I write.
dream philosophy writing
In Algeria, I had begun to get into literature and philosophy. I dreamed of writing-and already models were instructing the dream, a certain language governed it.
writing order years
During the fifteen or twenty years in which I tried - it was not always easy with publishers, newspapers, etc. - to forbid photographs, it was not at all in order to mark a sort of blank, absence, or disappearance of the image; it was because the code that dominates at once the production of these images, the framing they are made to undergo, the social implications (showing the writer's head framed in front his bookshelves, the whole scenario) seemed to me to be, first of all, terribly boring, but also contrary to what I am trying to write and to work on.
writing language traditional
The traditional statement about language is that it is in itself living, and that writing is the dead part of language.
ambition mean writing
The trace I leave to me means at once my death, to come or already come, and the hope that it will survive me. It is not an ambition of immortality; it is fundamental. I leave here a bit of paper, I leave, I die; it is impossible to exit this structure; it is the unchanging form of my life. Every time I let something go, I live my death in writing.
eye writing self
I would like to write you so simply, so simply, so simply. Without having anything ever catch the eye, excepting yours alone, ... so that above all the language remains self-evidently secret, as if it were being invented at every step, and as if it were burning immediately
entered french-philosopher generality soon
As soon as there is language, generality has entered the scen.
caring names awakening
Such a caring for death, an awakening that keeps vigil over death, a conscience that looks death in the face, is another name for freedom.
atheist
I rightly pass for an atheist.
football
Beyond the touchline there is nothing.
believe book fighting
I believe in the value of the book, which keeps something irreplaceable, and in the necessity of fighting to secure its respect.
solitude speak given
We are given over to absolute solitude. No one can speak with us and no one can speak for us; we must take it upon ourselves, each of us must take it upon himself.