Eugène Ionesco quotes

Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright, widely regarded as one of the founders of the Theatre of the Absurd. His works explore the futility of language and the absurdity of human existence. He became a major influence in 20th-century drama with iconic plays like "The Bald Soprano" and "Rhinoceros." Here are 80 of his quotes:

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. (Eugène Ionesco)
Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
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. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
Everything that has been will be, everything that will be is, everything that will be has been. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
A work of art really is above all an adventure of the mind. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
It's not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it's mankind. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
I am not capitulating. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
Oh words, what crimes are committed in your name? ~Jack or The Submission. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
Good men make good rhinoceroses, unfortunately. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
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. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
All the plays that have ever been written, from ancient Greece to the present day, have never really been anything but thrillers... Drama's always been realistic and there's always been a detective about... Every play's an investigation brought to a successful conclusion. (Eugène Ionesco)
People who don't read are brutes. It is better to write than to make war, isn't it? View quote
Eugène Ionesco
God is dead. Marx is dead. And I don't feel so well myself. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
It isn't what people think that's important, but the reason they think what they think. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
I'll never waste my dreams by falling asleep. Never again. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
But History was against me. History is right, objectively speaking. I'm just a historical dead end. I hope at least that my fate will serve as an example to you all and to posterity. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
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. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
I still forget, sometimes, that I am no longer 12 years old. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
We haven't the time to take out time. (Eugène Ionesco)
I long for solitude and yet I cannot stand it. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
You can only predict things after they've happened. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
That's how we stay young these days: murder and suicide. View quote
Eugène Ionesco
We moved back to Romania when I was thirteen, and my world was shattered. I hated Bucharest, its society, and its mores - its anti-Semitism for example. I was not Jewish, but I pronounced my r's as the French do and was often taken for a Jew, for which I was ruthlessly bullied.... It was the time of the rise of Nazism and everyone was becoming pro-Nazi - writers, teachers, biologists, historians ... It was a plague! They despised France and England because they were yiddified and racially impure. View quote
Eugène Ionesco