Samuel Beckett Quotes

236 Sourced Quotes

It sometimes happens and will sometimes happen again that I forget who I am and strut before my eyes, like a stranger.

Samuel Beckett
The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day.

Samuel Beckett
Decidedly it will never have been given to me to finish anything, except perhaps breathing. One must not be greedy.

Samuel Beckett
Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity.

Samuel Beckett
His writing is not about something; it is that something itself.
Of James Joyce

Samuel Beckett
This place, if I could describe this place, no place around me, there's no end to me, I don't know what it is, it isn't flesh, it doesn't end, it's like air…

Samuel Beckett
It is useless not to seek, not to want, for when you cease to seek you start to find, and when you cease to want, then life begins to ram her fish and chips down your gullet until you puke, and then the puke down your gullet until you puke the puke, and then the puked puke until you begin to like it.

Samuel Beckett
There is something … more important in life than punctuality, and that is decorum.

Samuel Beckett
Vladimir: That passed the time.
Estragon: It would have passed in any case.
Vladimir: Yes, but not so rapidly.

Samuel Beckett
To him who has nothing it is forbidden not to relish filth.

Samuel Beckett
How tell what remains? But it's the end. Or have I been dreaming, am I dreaming? No no, none of that, for dream is nothing, a joke, and significant what is worse.

Samuel Beckett
Tears, that could be the tone, if they weren't so easy, the true tone and tenor at last.

Samuel Beckett
How long have I been here, what a question, I've often wondered. And often I could answer, An hour, a month, a year, a century, depending on what I meant by here, and me, and being, and there I never went looking for extravagant meanings, there I never much varied, only the here would sometimes seem to vary.

Samuel Beckett
It was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible.

Samuel Beckett
Here's my life, why not, it is one, if you like, if you must, I don't say no, this evening. There has to be one, it seems, once there is speech, no need of a story, a story is not compulsory, just a life, that's the mistake I made, one of the mistakes, to have wanted a story for myself, whereas life alone is enough.

Samuel Beckett
Customer's Voice: In six days, do you hear me, in six days, God made the world…And you are not bloody well capable of making me a pair of trousers in three months!
Tailor's Voice: But my dear Sir, my dear Sir, look—at the world—and look—at my trousers.

Samuel Beckett
Don't wait to be hunted to hide, that's always been my motto.

Samuel Beckett
There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.

Samuel Beckett
Interviewer: You are English, Mr Beckett?
Beckett: Au contraire.

Samuel Beckett
Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.

Samuel Beckett
It's so nice to know where you're going, in the early stages. It almost rids you of the wish to go there.

Samuel Beckett
Language is best used where it is most efficiently abused.

Samuel Beckett
We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste. Come, let's get to work! (He advances towards the heap, stops in his stride.) In an instant all will vanish and we'll be alone more, in the midst of nothingness!

Samuel Beckett
If I had the use of my body I would throw it out of the window.

Samuel Beckett
We could have saved sixpence. We have saved fivepence. (Pause) But at what cost?

Samuel Beckett
The Tuesday scowls, the Wednesday growls, the Thursday curses, the Friday howls, the Saturday snores, the Sunday yawns, the Monday morns, the Monday morns. The whacks, the moans, the cracks, the groans, the welts, the squeaks, the belts, the shrieks, the pricks, the prayers, the kicks, the tears, the skelps, and the yelps.

Samuel Beckett
The memory came faint and cold of the story I might have told, a story in the likeness of my life, I mean without the courage to end or the strength to go on.

Samuel Beckett
Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!

Samuel Beckett
What they were most determined for me to swallow was my fellow creatures. In this they were without mercy. I remember little or nothing of these lectures. I cannot have understood a great deal. But I seem to have retained certain descriptions, in spite of myself. They gave me courses on love, on intelligence, most precious, most precious. They also taught me to count, and even to reason. Some of this rubbish has come in handy on occasions, I don't deny it, on occasions which would never have arisen if they had left me in peace. I use it still, to scratch my arse with.

Samuel Beckett
It is suicide to be abroad. But what is it to be at home, Mr Tyler, what is it to be at home? A lingering dissolution.

Samuel Beckett