Quotes by Samuel Beckett

About Samuel Beckett:

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Henry: I usen't to need anyone, just to myself, stories, there was a great one about an old fellow called Bolton, I never finished it, I never finished any of them, I never finished anything, everything always went on for ever. (Pause.)

Samuel Beckett

Ada: And why life? (Pause.) Why life, Henry? (Pause.) Is there anyone about? Henry: Not a living soul. Ada: I thought as much. (Pause.) When we longed to have it to ourselves there was always someone. Now that it does not matter the place is deserted...

Samuel Beckett

Is disinterest not the essence of every human relationship?

Samuel Beckett

That's not cruel. This is. You come here in the middle of the night, expecting me to be awake, and ask—no, demand—me to give you things that belong to me as much as they belong to you. Never mind what it does to me. Never mind that each time I se...

Samuel Beckett

The end is in the beginning and yet you go on.

Samuel Beckett

HAMM: Scoundrel! Why did you engender me? NAGG: I didn't know. HAMM: What? What didn't you know? NAGG: That it'd be you. (Pause.)

Samuel Beckett

Everyone needs to escape sometimes, and retreating into somebody else's fantasy isn't nearly as satisfying as slipping into your own.

Samuel Beckett

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.

Samuel Beckett

Happiness is such a fragile thing, isn't it? So easily burst, like a bubble blown by a child, and always on the verge of being carried away.

Samuel Beckett

Vel once told me that the heart isn't like a cup of water. You can't drain it. It's more like an endless well, and the more you love, the more it pumps out.

Samuel Beckett

When mothers warn their daughters about all the cold nasty men out there who will only break their tender little hearts, I'm the one they've got in mind because I'm the one who broke hearts when their mothers were warning .

Samuel Beckett

I hope you nail the bastard.”

Samuel Beckett

Crazy people always think they're perfectly sane. It's what makes them so crazy; their entire delusion lies within the fact that they believe they aren't deluded.

Samuel Beckett

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth for the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two person...

Samuel Beckett

That's life. Life is the ultimate game, and its rules were made to be broken

Samuel Beckett

Vol picks up the cup of tea in both hands and takes a long sip. Mm, grass-clippings. Her favourite.

Samuel Beckett

CLOV: Do you believe in the life to come? HAMM: Mine was always that.

Samuel Beckett

I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation.

Samuel Beckett

To have been always what I am - and so changed from what I was.

Samuel Beckett

To be always what I am - and so changed from what I was.

Samuel Beckett

Ah earth you old extinguisher.

Samuel Beckett

Author Bio

  • NameSamuel Beckett
  • DescriptionIrish novelist, playwright, and poet
  • AliasesSamuel Barclay Beckett; Andrew Belis
  • BornApril 13, 1906
  • DiedDecember 22, 1989
  • CountryIreland
  • ProfessionWriter; Linguist; Film Director; Screenwriter; Cricketer; Poet; Novelist; Playwright; Translator; Artist
  • WorksMurphy; Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable; Waiting For Godot; Watt; Endgame; Krapp's Last Tape; How It Is
  • AwardsNobel Prize In Literature