Beckett Quotes

“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”
― Samuel Beckett, Murphy

“Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.”
― Samuel Beckett, Endgame

“The earth makes a sound as of sighs and the last drops fall from the emptied cloudless sky. A small boy, stretching out his hands and looking up at the blue sky, asked his mother how such a thing was possible. Fuck off, she said.”
― 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, Molloy

“All I know is what the words know, and dead things, and that makes a handsome little sum, with a beginning and a middle and an end, as in the well-built phrase and the long sonata of the dead.”
― Samuel Beckett

“When a man in a forest thinks he is going forward in a straight line, in reality he is going in a circle, I did my best to go in a circle, hoping to go in a straight line.”
― Samuel Beckett, Molloy

“Beckett's probably the hardest man there is to love," Blake said. "He does life wrong for all the right reasons.”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.
(Pause. Krapp's lips move. No sound.)
Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.”
― Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape & Embers

“Simple shit makes this chick crap bubbles and rainbows" -Beckett”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“How do you manage it, she said, at your age? I told her I'd been saving up for her all my life.”
― Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape & Embers

“In his head Beckett put the two of them in a big snow globe with glitter that he could shake when he wanted them to fucking sparkle together. Perfect in their condo with a dog and a kid and glitter.”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“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.”
― Jenny B. Jones, There You'll Find Me

“Be again, be again. (Pause.) All that old misery. (Pause.) Once wasn't enough for you.”
― Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape & Embers

“And as for girls who try to stay away from me—my charm always wears them down.”
“I’m up-to-date on my shots, so I’m pretty much immune to everything.”
― Jenny B. Jones, There You'll Find Me

“Beckett started the Hummer and texted Eve:
Tak4e Ur Cloth3s OFF Im on my qway
Her reply came back quick as lightning:
Take ur clothes off and f*ck yourself.
“One way or another, this chick is gonna kill me,” Beckett growled as the Hummer roared away.”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - (pause) - after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. (Pause. Low) Let me in.”
― Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape & Embers

“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, Watt

“The new light above my table is a great improvement. With all this darkness around me I feel less alone. (Pause.) In a way. (Pause.) I love to get up and move about in it, then back here to... (hesitates) ...me. (Pause.)”
― Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape & Embers

“Don't ever die in my head again. Please, never again,”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“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.”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“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, Endgame

“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.”
― Samuel Beckett, Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho

“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”
― Samuel Beckett, Collected Poems in English and French

“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.”
― Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie

“She dragged me across the floor, stopping from time to time only to kick me. I didn't know our cows too could be so inhuman.”
― Samuel Beckett, First Love and Other Novellas

“Poor Willie - running out - ah well - can't be helped - just one of those old things - another of those old things - just can't be cured - cannot be cured - ah yes - poor dear Willie - good Lord! - good God! - ah well - no worse - no better, no worse - no change - no pain - hardly any - great thing that - nothing like it - pure ... what? - what? - ah yes - poor Willie - no zest - for anything - no interest - in life - poor dear Willie - sleep for ever - marvellous gift - in my opinion - always said so - wish I had it”
― Samuel Beckett, Happy Days

“Look, she said stooping over her breasts, the haloes are darkening already. I summoned up my remaining strength and said, Abort, abort and they'll blush like new.”
― Samuel Beckett, First Love and Other Novellas

“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, Embers

“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.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“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?”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot