Quotessence
Home / Topics / Beckett Quotes

Beckett Quotes

Browse 91 quotes about Beckett.

Beckett Quotes

“What is certain is this, that I never rested in that way again, my feet obscenely resting on the earth, my arms on the handlebars and on my arms my head, rocking and abandoned. It is indeed a delporable sight, a deplorable example, for the people, who so need to be encouraged, in their bitter toil, and to have before their eyes manifestations of strength only, of courage and joy, without which they might collapse, at the end of the day, and roll on the ground.”

PeopleExampleSeparationBeckettIdentifying With Others
Book:Molloy
Create image

“The Exo went pale when he realized what we were dealing with. Well, what he thought we were dealing with. I never really thought he was a paragon of courage, mister ‘I’ll-be-Captain-one-of-these-days’ Beckett. He wanted to turn a blind eye as it were, and keep going. Of course we didn’t want to break the law – or tempt karma… so the Captain over-ruled him and decided to stop. It was. A trap, I mean. But nothing like we thought – not something as mundane as Corsairs. Oh, no. And it didn’t spring on us till days later, when we were light-years away.”

MeanKarmaNeverOfWellHeBeckettButWithAwayGoingSoTrapWasDealingOhCorsairsExo
Book:Space Vacation
Create image

“[Ibykos fr. 286 translated using only words from p. 47 of Endgame by Samuel Beckett] In your kitchen, on the one hand, bright corpses starting to stink of having an idea, where one of my legs [is] and beneath sooner or later the whole universe doesn't ring and won't work. On the other hand, I shouldn't think so. Nay Rather, like a speck in the void, pacing to and fro, accompanied by the alarm, frankly, angrily, impatiently, not very convinced, [it] kisses me goodbye. I'm dead. (Pause).”

PoetryEndgameBeckettAnne CarsonNay Rather
Author:Anne Carson
Create image

“You’re not too bad, Finley Sinclair.” I couldn’t have looked away from this boy if the room had caught on fire. “You’re okay yourself. At times.” “But we can’t get involved.” “No.” I swallowed. “Definitely not.” His face lowered a fraction of an inch. “Because I’m infamously bad.” “And I’m staying away from trouble.” His voice was rough, husky. “It would never work.” I took a step closer. “Impossible.” He traced my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “We don’t even like each other." “I pretty much can’t stand you.” And then his lips crushed to mine.”

BeckettFinley
Book:There You'll Find Me
Create image

“You lean back against the door with bowed head making ready to set out. By the time you open your eyes your feet have disappeared and the skirt of your great coat come to rest on the surface of the snow. The dark scene seems lit from below. You see yourself at the last outset leaning against the door with closed eyes waiting for the word from you to go. To be gone.Then the snowlit scene. You lie in the dark with closed eyes and see yourself there as described making ready to strike out and away across the expanse of light. You hear again the click of the door pulled gently to and the silence before the steps can start. Next thing you are on your way across the white pasture afrolic with lambs in spring and strewn with red placantae.”

BeckettSamuel Beckett
Book:Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho
Create image

“Kyle’s shrill voice interrupted their moment. “Figured you two would turn this into a scout meeting. Will you get your asses up here? People are waiting. I mean Beckett here has maybe a few hours before he’s bent over a metal toilet getting it up the ass from a guy named Bubba. Do you want him to have fun now or not?” The streetlight illuminated Beckett as he appeared next to Kyle. “Why would I be the bitch? I don’t think that’s a fair f*cking assumption.” Kyle refused to look at him and crossed her arms. “Of course you’d be the bitch. You have dimples. Bitches have dimples. And I bet your ass is soft like two pillows. Bubba’s going to love bouncing off of you.” Beckett stormed away, dragging Kyle with him. “I’ll be the f*cker,” he told her. “Not the f*ckee. The f*cker.” “Fine, a$$hole, you’re the f*cker,” Kyle’s voice faded away as they returned to the party.”

BeckettPoughkeepsieDebra AnastasiaKyleOne Stellar Moment
Book:Poughkeepsie
Create image

“que ferais-je sans ce monde que ferais-je sans ce monde sans visage sans questions où être ne dure qu'un instant où chaque instant verse dans le vide dans l'oubli d'avoir été sans cette onde où à la fin corps et ombre ensemble s'engloutissent que ferais-je sans ce silence gouffre des murmures haletant furieux vers le secours vers l'amour sans ce ciel qui s'élève sur la poussieère de ses lests que ferais-je je ferais comme hier comme aujourd'hui regardant par mon hublot si je ne suis pas seul à errer et à virer loin de toute vie dans un espace pantin sans voix parmi les voix enfermées avec moi Translation... what would I do without this world what would I do without this world faceless incurious where to be lasts but an instant where every instant spills in the void the ignorance of having been without this wave where in the end body and shadow together are engulfed what would I do without this silence where the murmurs die the pantings the frenzies towards succour towards love without this sky that soars above its ballast dust what would I do what I did yesterday and the day before peering out of my deadlight looking for another wandering like me eddying far from all the living in a convulsive space among the voices voiceless that throng my hiddenness”

PoemsFrenchBeckett
Book:Collected Poems in English and French
Create image

“So I'm sitting in that damn chair, ready to die, and I say to her, 'You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I'm so damn glad you're going to kill me instead of some brainless, toothless druggie." Beckett smiled again at the memory of his almost-murder. "Then she traded the knife for her lips, and now she works for me." Beckett put his hands behind his head and flexed his giant biceps. "She won't tell me who hired her to come here. She's the deadliest person I've ever encountered. I still think she might kill me, but I can't stop looking at her.”

HomelessBeckettPoughkeepsieDebra Anastasia
Book:Poughkeepsie
Create image

“Estragon:-¿Cuál es nuestro papel en este asunto? Vladimir:-¿Nuestro papel? Estragon:-Tómate tiempo. Vladimir:-¿Nuestro papel? El del suplicante. Estragon:-¿Hasta este extremo? Vladimir: ¿El señor tiene exigencias que hacer valer? Estragon:-¿Ya no tenemos derechos? (Risa de Vladimir, quien se reprime como antes. Mismos gestos, salvo la sonrisa) Vladimir:-Me harías reír si me estuviera permitido. Estragon:-¿Los hemos perdido? Vladimir (con claridad):-Los hemos vendido.”

BeckettTeatroDerechosSamuel Beckett
Book:Waiting for Godot
Create image

“Vladimir:-Cuando uno piensa, oye. Estragon:-Cierto. Vladimir:-Y eso impide reflexionar. Estragon:-Claro. Vladimir:-Impide pensar. Estragon:-De todos modos se piensa. Vladimir:-¡Qué va!, resulta imposible. Estragon:-Eso es, contradigámonos. Vladimir: Imposible. Estragon:-¿Tú crees? Vladimir:-Ya no nos arriesgamos a pensar. Estragon:-Entonces, ¿De qué nos lamentamos?”

PensamientosReflexionesBeckettPensar
Book:Waiting for Godot
Create image

“Gertrude Stein, all courage and will, is a soldier of minimalism. Her work, unlike the resonating silences in the art of Samuel Beckett, embodies in its loquacity and verbosity the curious paradox of the minimalist form. This art of the nuance in repetition and placement she shares with the orchestral compositions of Philip Glass.”

ArtFormSilenceShareSoldierGlassesCuriousParadoxCompositionRepetitionMinimalismNuancePhilipMinimalistBeckettPlacementGertrudeResonating
Book:Sight-readings: American Fictions
Create image

“Like his admirer Samuel Beckett, Johnson locates his voices among conditions of such deprivation that even the most miserable memories are gilded by comparison: this paradox fuels equal parts of comedy and pathos. Never sentimental, at once corrosive and elegiac, House Mother Normal is a remarkable achievement.”

MotherHouseVoiceMemoriesComedyConditionsEqualNormalAchievementMiserableFuelRemarkableComparisonParadoxSentimentalJohnsonDeprivationAdmirerPathosBeckettGilded
Author:James Marcus
Create image