Samuel Beckett
Pioneer of Theatre of the Absurd
Most quoted
"The sun shines, the moon shines, the stars shine, the earth turns, the sky is blue, the sea is green, the birds sing, the flowers bloom, the trees grow, the grass grows, the animals live, the people live, the children play, the old people die, the young people live, the rich people live, the poor people live, the good people live, the bad people live, the happy people live, the sad people live, the healthy people live, the sick people live, the beautiful people live, the ugly people live, the intelligent people live, the stupid people live, the wise people live, the foolish people live, the strong people live, the weak people live, the brave people live, the cowardly people live, the honest people live, the dishonest people live, the kind people live, the cruel people live, the generous people live, the selfish people live, the loving people live, the hating people live, the peaceful people live, the violent people live, the free people live, the enslaved people live, the living people live, the dead people live, the living people die, the dead people live."
— from Malone Dies
"The light is on my face. It is on my hands. It is on my clothes. It is on my feet. It is on my shoes. It is on my socks. It is on my skin. It is on my hair. It is on my eyes. It is on my mouth. It is on my nose. It is on my ears. It is on my neck. It is on my chest. It is on my stomach. It is on my legs. It is on my arms. It is on my back. It is on my buttocks. It is on my genitals. It is on my whole body. It is on my whole being. It is on my whole life. It is on my whole death. It is on my whole nothing."
— from Happy Days, 1961
"Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua of a white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown are plunged in torment plunged in fire whose fire is the only fire that can warm us."
— from Waiting for Godot
All quotes by Samuel Beckett (273)
The danger is in the neatness of identifications.
I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning.
I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent.
Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the gravedigger puts on the forceps.
But that is not the question. Why one is here, that is the question.
We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?
All is deadly still, as if the earth were under a spell.
Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.
Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.
Then, as a result of being on earth, one is rather thirsty.
I am not a historian. For me, the clock struck never.
Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back.
Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.
Contemporaries of Samuel Beckett
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Samuel Beckett (1906–1989).