Slavoj Žižek

Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire - it tells you how to desire.

The one measure of true love is: you can insult the other.

Words are never 'only words'; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do.

We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.

When we are shown scenes of starving children in Africa, with a call for us to do something to help them, the underlying ideological message is something like: "Don't think, don't politicize, forget about the true causes of their poverty, just act, contribute money, so that you will not have to think!

The problem for us is not are our desires satisfied or not. The problem is how do we know what we desire.

The true ethical test is not only the readiness to save the victims, but also - even more, perhaps - the ruthless dedication to annihilating those who made them victims.

Because the horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things — they always do. It's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great.

Humanity is OK, but 99% of people are boring idiots.