Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud. (4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely recognized as a major figure of the European avant-garde, he had a particularly strong influence on twentieth-century theatre through his conceptualization of the Theatre of Cruelty. Known for his raw, surreal and transgressive work, his texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures, philosophy, the occult, mysticism and indigenous Mexican and Balinese practices.

[What is a writer? He writes for readers, but what does “for” mean? It means intended for them, a writer, he writes to his readers just as he writes “for” readers. He also writes for non-readers, that is, not intended for them, but “in place of them.” So “for” means two things: intended for them and in their place. Artaud famously wrote, “I write for the illiterate… I write for idiots.” Faulkner also wrote for idiots. That doesn’t mean so that idiots might read, or the illiterate might read. It means “in the place of” the illiterate. I write “in the place of” barbarians, I write “in the place of” animals. And what does that mean? Why does one dare say something like that? I write in the place of idiots… the illiterate… animals?]