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I believe in democracy, but in real democracy, not a phony democracy in which just powerful people can speak. For me, in a democracy everyone speaks.

— Augusto Boal

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: As quoted in "To Dynamize the Audience: Interview with Augusto Boal" by Robert Enight, Canadian Theatre Review 47 (Summer 1986), pp. 41-49
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

More by Augusto Boal

We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it.

World Theater Day Message, Geneva, Switzerland (2009)

To resist, it is not enough to say No – it is necessary to desire!

Aesthetics of the Oppressed (2006)

This is...how artists should be—we should be creators and also teach the public how to be creators, how to make art, so that we may all use that art together.

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)

It is forbidden to walk on the grass. It is not forbidden to fly over the grass.

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)

When we look beyond appearances, we see oppressors and oppressed people, in all societies, ethnic groups, genders, social classes and casts; we see an unfair and cruel world.

World Theater Day Message, Geneva, Switzerland (2009)

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Topics

Democracy

More quotes by Augusto Boal

The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)

Theatre has nothing to do with buildings or other physical constructions. Theatre — or theatricality — is the capacity, this human property which allows man to observe himself in action, in activity.

The Rainbow of Desire (1995)

In its most archaic sense, theatre is the capacity possessed by human beings—and not by animals—to observe themselves in action.

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)

We must all do theatre – to find out who we are, and to discover who we could become.

Aesthetics of the Oppressed (2006)

Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)

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Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament!

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)

The law itself is the instrument of the ruling class; hence it is a logical impossibility for another class to assume power legally.

Oliver Cox Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics (1948)

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of bourgeois stupidity.

Gustave Flaubert

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Augusto Boal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.