Eugène Ionesco Quotes

1909–1994 France

Eugène Ionesco (26 November 1909 – 29 March 1994), born Eugen Ionescu, was a Romanian playwright and dramatist, one of the foremost playwrights of Theatre of the Absurd.

France
Academics
Playwrights

Also known as: Eugene Ionesco, Ionesco, Eugene, Ionesco, Eugène, Eugen Ionescu

Random Eugène Ionesco quote

46 quotes

Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for humanity. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for me.

The Hermit (1973)

The absence of ideology in a work does not mean an absence of ideas; on the contrary it fertilizes them.

I believe that what separates us all from one another is simply society itself, or, if you like, politics. This is what raises barriers between men, this is what creates misunderstanding.

There are now many invisible people on stage.

Stage directions in The Chairs (1952)

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

Découvertes (1970)

Oh words, what crimes are committed in your name!

Jacques from Jacques or the Submission (1955)

It isn't what people think that's important, but the reason they think what they think.

Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977)

Good men make good rhinoceroses, unfortunately.

Rhinoceros (1959)

God is dead. Marx is dead. And I don't feel so well myself.

Everything that has been will be, everything that will be is, everything that will be has been.

The Little Book of Romanian Wisdom (2011)

It's not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it's mankind.

Encyclopedia of World Biography (1998)

No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.

‘It was a lot of fuss about nothing, wasn’t it?’

All cats are mortal. Socrates is mortal. Therefore Socrates is a cat.

Rhinocéros (1959)

I am told, in a dream ... you can only get the answer to all your questions through a dream. So in my dream, I fall asleep, and I dream, in my dream, that I'm having that absolute, revealing dream.

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.

The Writer's Quotation Book : A Literary Companion (1980)

Two things are unacceptable: birth and death. I did not ask for them and I do not accept them.

People always try to find base motives behind every good action. We are afraid of pure goodness and of pure evil.

The Paris Review interview (1984)

Born in horror and pain, I also live in horrible dread of the end, the exit. I'm caught in an incredible, inadmissible, infernal trap, between two frightful events.

Dieu est mort, Marx est mort et moi-même je ne me sens pas très bien

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Eugène Ionesco (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.