Eugene Ionesco Quotes

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.

Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I'd be a politician.

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

People who don't read are brutes.

Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose, bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.

A work of art really is above all an adventure of the mind.

Oh words, what crimes are committed in your name? ~Jack or The Submission

DAISY: I never knew you were such a realist-I thought you were more poetic. Where's your imagination? There are many sides to reality. Choose the one that's best for you. Escape into the world of imagination.

In the history of humanity there are no civilizations or cultures which fail to manifest, in one or a thousand ways, this need for an absolute that is called heaven, freedom, a miracle, a lost paradise to be regained, peace, the going beyond History... There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.... Humanity has always had a nostalgia for the freedom that is only beauty, that is only real; life, plenitude, light.

What's chivalrous about saying you've seen a rhinoceros?

When I was born, I was almost fourteen years old. That's why I was able to understand more easily than most what it was all about.

It’s not the answer that enlightens, but the question. EUGENE IONESCO

He would say ect. instead of ect., and thus instead of ect., instead of ect. and thus and so forth!

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing, or thinking about writing.

Poezia este destinata poeziei si nu publicului. Poetul nu are nevoie de public. Publicul confunda poezia cu sansoneta.

No es la respuesta que ilumina, sino la pregunta.” Eugene Ionesco

C'est pour cela que les jeunes se suicident ou qu'on les tue. Ainsi on les cloue dans leur jeunesse pour toujours, dans les panoplies de l'éternité.

AMÉDÉE: Slavery has been abolished, my love . . . MADELEINE: I’m not your love . . . AMÉDÉE: Slaves belong to the past . . . MADELEINE: Well, I’m a modern slave, then!

Eugen Ionescu, de même que tous les intellectuels roumains de l'entre-deux-guerres, cultive les auteurs français faute de pouvoir continuer à les étudier à l'ombre de la Sorbonne et du Palais-Royal, car les conditions de change très sévères interdisent pour la majorité d'entre eux des voyages à l'étranger. Le retour au pays de ceux qui ont la chance d'étudier à Paris est le plus souvent amer. « Un jour il a fallu prendre le train pour la Roumanie et être professeur dans une ville de province dénuée de tout charme – se plaint Anton Holban, ami d'Eugen Ionescu, qui enseigne le français dans un lycée de Galați. Il a fallu considérer comme importants les changements politiques de la bourgade, le registre, les notes des élèves. Compter les récréations et rire de tout cœur aux plaisanteries salées de mes collègues. » (p. 13)

La carrière roumaine du futur académicien n'a pas été un échec. Le critique n'a pas été ignoré, les contradictions de ses articles et de son livre ["Non"] ont été relevées, mais aussi l'intelligence, l'humour et le caractère attachant du critique. "Le livre de cet enfant terrible qu'est Eugen Ionescu-notait un critique le 28 mai 1934 dans son Journal-est un livre écrit avec clairvoyance, avec du nerf, de la verve et de l'audace, qui conviennent bien-sont même à désirer-dans la pratique des jeunes." (Sașa Pană, "Născut în '02" [Né en 1902], Bucarest, 1973, p. 469). (p. 128)

Românul este, dealtfel, leneș în viața de toate zilele, liric în poezie, tembel în politicã și impresionist în critica literarã.

Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers I'd be a politician.