Samuel Beckett Quotes

Ireland, Writer
April 13, 1906 – December, 22, 1989.

Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, poet, and literary translator who lived in Paris for most of his adult life. He wrote in both English and French.

Also known as Linguist, Film Director, Screenwriter, Cricketer, Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Translator, Artist

Krapp: Ah finish your booze now and get to your bed. Go on with this drivel in the morning. Or leave it at that. (Pause.) Leave it at that.

Samuel Beckett
- Morning
I felt ill at ease with all this air about me, lost before the confusion of innumerable prospects.

Samuel Beckett
- Lost
- Air

At no moment do I know what I’m talking about, nor of whom, nor of where, nor how, nor why, but I could employ fifty wretches for this sinister operation and still be short of the fifty-first, to close the circuit, that I know, without knowing what it means.

Samuel Beckett
- Why
How all becomes clear and simple when one opens an eye on the within, having of course previously exposed it to the without, in order to benefit by the contrast.

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

Samuel Beckett
- Eyes
Deplorable mania, when something happens, to inquire what.

Samuel Beckett
I felt weak, perhaps I was.

Samuel Beckett
Hamm: We're not beginning … to … to … mean something?Clov: Mean something? You and I mean something?

Samuel Beckett
- Beginning

No way in, go in, measure.

Samuel Beckett
What can it matter to me, that I succeed or fail? The undertaking is none of mine, if they want me to succeed I’ll fail, and vice versa, so as not to be rid of my tormentors.

Samuel Beckett
I knew it would soon be the end, so I played the part, you know, the part of - how shall I say, I don’t know.

Samuel Beckett
There is a little of everything, apparently, in nature, and freaks are common.

Samuel Beckett
- Nature