--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues…" description: "\"Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues, and poetry—was his attempt to clarify the inner contradictions not only of the capitalism and fascism of his ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/richard-foreman-24578_angst_everything-brecht-wrote-plays-dialogues_2535099.png" --- # Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues, and poetry—was… ![“Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues, and poetry—was his attempt to clarify the inner contradictions not only of the capitalism and fascism of his times, but also of the communism that was always disappointing his deepest hopes. In a book that makes Brecht’s struggle to reveal these hidden…” quote by Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/richard-foreman-24578_angst_everything-brecht-wrote-plays-dialogues_2535099.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/richard-foreman-24578_angst_everything-brecht-wrote-plays-dialogues_2535099.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/richard-foreman-24578_angst_everything-brecht-wrote-plays-dialogues_2535099.png) > “Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues, and poetry—was his attempt to clarify the inner contradictions not only of the capitalism and fascism of his times, but also of the communism that was always disappointing his deepest hopes. In a book that makes Brecht’s struggle to reveal these hidden contradictions its central theme, Glahn issues, by implication, a call to arms to today’s artists—who are faced with a world that seems to defy attempts to treat the global crisis with an art that is rarely more than notes on ‘local’ angst.” [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Brecht’s works aimed to expose contradictions in political systems, urging contemporary artists to confront global crises through art. **In simple terms:** Brecht exposed political contradictions; artists should act today. Key Takeaway Use art to reveal societal flaws. Themes politics art contradiction activism Mood critical provocative Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - theatre production - public installations - media campaigns Key Concepts critical theory social commentary Questions to Reflect On - How can art influence political change? - What contradictions do you see today? A Different Perspective Art may be dismissed as non‑practical. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Angst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/angst/) [Arms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arms/) [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Artist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/artist/) [Book](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/book/) [Brecht](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/brecht/) [Brecht Struggle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/brecht-struggle-1380492/) [Brecht Wrote](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/brecht-wrote-1380491/) [Capitalism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/capitalism/) [Communication](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communication/) [Communism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communism/) [Contradiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/contradiction/) [Contradictions Capitalism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/contradictions-capitalism-1061544/) [Crisis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crisis/) [Dialogue](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dialogue/) [Disappointing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disappointing/) [Fascism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fascism/) [Hope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hope/) [Implications](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/implications/) [Issues](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/issues/) [Locals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/locals/) [Makes Brecht](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/makes-brecht-1380493/) [Notes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/notes/) [Play](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/play/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Seems](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seems/) [Struggle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/struggle/) [Theme](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/theme/) [Today](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/today/) [Treats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/treats/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which historically have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/a-tension-has-always-existed-between-the-capitalist-imperative-to/) [Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/) > [There is, in short, no 'spatial fix' that can contain the contradictions of capitalism in the long run.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-harvey/there-is-in-short-no-spatial-fix-that-can-contain-the-contradictions/) [David Harvey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-harvey/) > [“The shared meal is no small thing. It is a foundation of family life, the place where our children learn the art of conversation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/the-shared-meal-is-no-small-thing-it-is-a-foundation-of-family-life-2/) [Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/) > [The only solution to the contradictions of capitalism entails the abolition of wage labour.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-harvey/the-only-solution-to-the-contradictions-of-capitalism-entails-the/) [David Harvey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-harvey/) > [I don't think that the contradictions between capitalism and socialism can be resolved by war. This is no longer the age of the bow…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fidel-castro/i-don-t-think-that-the-contradictions-between-capitalism-and/) [Fidel Castro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fidel-castro/) > [The dilemma of Brechtian performance is that, for all of Brecht's emphasis on rationality and the undermining of theatrical illusion, the actor must convincingly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-auslander/the-dilemma-of-brechtian-performance-is-that-for-all-of-brecht-s/) [Philip Auslander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-auslander/) > [“Our ambitions were, nonetheless, what those of any sensible group of women at that time, perhaps at any modern time, ought to have been:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/renata-adler/our-ambitions-were-nonetheless-what-those-of-any-sensible-group-of/) [Renata Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/renata-adler/) > [“Subtle! Subtlety is bourgeois. Brecht us that when he popped drama’s cherry. He fucked drama until it stopped being subtle, like a lady, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-burr-gerrard/subtle-subtlety-is-bourgeois-brecht-us-that-when-he-popped-drama-s/) [David Burr Gerrard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-burr-gerrard/) > [I have great respect for Brecht, but his path is not mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-brook/i-have-great-respect-for-brecht-but-his-path-is-not-mine/) [Peter Brook](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-brook/) > [“Food comes first and then morality Bertolt brecht”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bertolt-brecht/food-comes-first-and-then-morality-bertolt-brecht/) [bertolt brecht](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bertolt-brecht/) > [“Bertolt Brecht: I would also like to be wise. In the old books it says what wisdom is: To shun the strife of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madeleine-thien/bertolt-brecht-i-would-also-like-to-be-wise-in-the-old-books-it-says/) [Madeleine Thien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madeleine-thien/) > [I was called up in the war and sent to a hospital. I dressed wounds, applied iodine, gave enemas, did blood transfusions. If the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bertolt-brecht/i-was-called-up-in-the-war-and-sent-to-a-hospital-i-dressed-wounds/) [Bertolt Brecht](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bertolt-brecht/) > [While I don't script and I don't use other performers, I think my taste for underlying precision gives me something in common with Allan…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-antin/while-i-don-t-script-and-i-don-t-use-other-performers-i-think-my/) [David Antin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-antin/) > [“As a youth I enjoyed — indeed, like most of my contemporaries, revered — the agitprop plays of Brecht, and his indictments of Capitalism.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-mamet/as-a-youth-i-enjoyed-indeed-like-most-of-my-contemporaries-revered/) [David Mamet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-mamet/) > [“Brecht was a cynical bohemian bogey of the middle classes, but also much more than a mere provocateur. He developed and dramatized his political…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harold-bloom/brecht-was-a-cynical-bohemian-bogey-of-the-middle-classes-but-also/) [Harold Bloom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harold-bloom/) ## More by Richard Foreman > [You know, actually, I went to Yale because I wanted to stay out of the army.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/you-know-actually-i-went-to-yale-because-i-wanted-to-stay-out-of-the/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/i-see-within-us-all-myself-included-the-replacement-of-complex-inner/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [One does not devote one's life in art to shock an audience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/one-does-not-devote-one-s-life-in-art-to-shock-an-audience/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [I realized that I had to be honest about where I was, where I was coming from, and what I was trying to do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/i-realized-that-i-had-to-be-honest-about-where-i-was-where-i-was/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [I was enchanted by the escape into that meticulous world that seemed real yet not... well, it seemed not real, but very detailed and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/i-was-enchanted-by-the-escape-into-that-meticulous-world-that-seemed/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [Now, when I started my theater, the modus operandi was having the actors stare right into the audience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/now-when-i-started-my-theater-the-modus-operandi-was-having-the/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [From that time through the time I was a New Dramatist, when I was something like twenty-two, I saw absolutely everything in New York.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/from-that-time-through-the-time-i-was-a-new-dramatist-when-i-was/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [Because even at the age of fifteen, I used to go see all the Broadway shows and feel that they were sentimental, that they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/because-even-at-the-age-of-fifteen-i-used-to-go-see-all-the-broadway/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [What really happened was one day I decided to write a new kind of play.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/what-really-happened-was-one-day-i-decided-to-write-a-new-kind-of-play/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [Quite the opposite. I might fall on my face, but I feel born again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/quite-the-opposite-i-might-fall-on-my-face-but-i-feel-born-again/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense, and 'cathedral-like' structure of the highly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/i-come-from-a-tradition-of-western-culture-in-which-the-ideal-my/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [There is no work of art that has ever been made that is absolutely truthful about life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/there-is-no-work-of-art-that-has-ever-been-made-that-is-absolutely/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [As I told you, from the time I was fifteen, I thought the theater was too much involved with actors trying to make the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/as-i-told-you-from-the-time-i-was-fifteen-i-thought-the-theater-was/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [All the dialogue on tape, and we'd play the tape in performance. Then I thought it'd be interesting if the actor's repeated what they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/all-the-dialogue-on-tape-and-we-d-play-the-tape-in-performance-then-i/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) > [It's true, I don't like the real world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-foreman/it-s-true-i-don-t-like-the-real-world/) [Richard Foreman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) [Explore all 24 Richard Foreman quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-foreman/) ## More Angst quotes > [“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nenia-campbell/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-na-ve-and-innocent-girl-who-thought-she/) [Nenia Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nenia-campbell/) > [“Go with yourself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fiona-apple/go-with-yourself/) [Fiona Apple](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fiona-apple/) > [Once we got over the origin story, we could really delve deeper into their lives and characters and angst. So this movie actually has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/avi-arad/once-we-got-over-the-origin-story-we-could-really-delve-deeper-into/) [Avi Arad](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/avi-arad/) > [“When you’ve tired of me,” she said softly, precisely, “Apollo will still be my brother. Will still be there for me.” “I’ll never tire…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-hoyt/when-you-ve-tired-of-me-she-said-softly-precisely-apollo-will-still/) [Elizabeth Hoyt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-hoyt/) > [You look out into the audience and you see so much joy on people's faces. You make eye contact with people who are almost…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-mcvie/you-look-out-into-the-audience-and-you-see-so-much-joy-on-people-s/) [Christine McVie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-mcvie/) > [“What I needed was to lose myself in a good book, one with tons of sex and angst, complete with an unbelievable happily-ever-after that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-lynn/what-i-needed-was-to-lose-myself-in-a-good-book-one-with-tons-of-sex/) [J. Lynn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-lynn/) > [“She personified her name in everything she did. Even when we would row, her words were deftly chosen and spoken rather like an intricate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-cagliola-green/she-personified-her-name-in-everything-she-did-even-when-we-would-row/) [Lauren Cagliola Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-cagliola-green/) > [I'm still secretly a bit of a punk. Love The Clash and a bit of the Pistols. I guess as I've got older I've…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iwan-rheon/i-m-still-secretly-a-bit-of-a-punk-love-the-clash-and-a-bit-of-the/) [Iwan Rheon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iwan-rheon/) > [“No. This would be better as a team." She dragged her top drawer open, rooted out her aspirin. "I should have fired her weeks…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nora-roberts/no-this-would-be-better-as-a-team-she-dragged-her-top-drawer-open/) [Nora Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nora-roberts/) > [“Name's Braxxon baby and I wanna touch an angel"- Braxxon”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/crystal-spears/name-s-braxxon-baby-and-i-wanna-touch-an-angel-braxxon/) [Crystal Spears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/crystal-spears/) > [“There's a special quality to the loneliness of dusk, a melancholy more brooding even than the night's.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ed-gorman/there-s-a-special-quality-to-the-loneliness-of-dusk-a-melancholy-more/) [Ed Gorman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ed-gorman/) > [I was filled with angst in college, that I struggled with the question of my future, the meaning of my life - spoiled sheltered…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kostova/i-was-filled-with-angst-in-college-that-i-struggled-with-the-question/) [Elizabeth Kostova](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kostova/) > [Most people would say they live with an internal angst that they can't always put their finger on. This is because the Internet has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tricia-rhodes/most-people-would-say-they-live-with-an-internal-angst-that-they-can/) [Tricia Rhodes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tricia-rhodes/) > [As a reader, I'm often put off by authors and story-lines without families or children and all of the angst and joy they bring…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-j-box-2/as-a-reader-i-m-often-put-off-by-authors-and-story-lines-without/) [C. J. Box](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-j-box-2/) > [“Pain dutifully reminds me that the world is terribly imperfect, but it faithfully helps me appreciate the world on those days when it’s a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-d-lounsbrough/pain-dutifully-reminds-me-that-the-world-is-terribly-imperfect-but-it/) [Craig D. Lounsbrough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-d-lounsbrough/) [Browse all 325 Angst quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/angst/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues, and poetry—was his attempt to clarify the inner contradictions not only of the capitalism and fascism of his times, but also of the communism that was always disappointing his deepest hopes. 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