This interview with Jean-Michel Rabaté invites us to explore connections between psychoanalysis and multiple fascinating instances of modernism (from Rimbaud to Jarry to Proust and Gide to Kafka) and avant-garde art (surrealism and dadaism). The political and analytic power of laughter, horror, irreverence, and scandal come to the foreground in discussions about the affective dimension of art-viewing and reading literature. Rabaté thinks about the death drive in relation to writing, discusses intriguing moments from his recent books, his own response to Lacan's seminars, and his unique experiences with and reactions to artworks. The interview concludes with Rabaté's presentation of the effects of Marcel Duchamp's 1912 Avoir l'apprenti dans le soleil: https://www.wikiart.org/en/marcel-duchamp/to-have-the-apprentice-in-the-sun-1914 Many thanks to Kellen Corrallo and Rachit Anand for their editorial assistance.