By Gilles Deleuze
The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, or ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying.
— Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze, Negotiations 1972-1990 (1995), p. 129.
Deleuze argues that “we’re riddled with pointless talk, insane quantities of words and images.” Repressive forces don’t stop people expressing themselves—they force them to express themselves.
Also cited in Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing (2019).