The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us. When the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence, one has become an adult. Eugene Ionesco More Quotes by Eugene Ionesco More Quotes From Eugene Ionesco It's not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it's mankind. Eugene Ionesco ridiculous mankind certain The poet cannot invent new words every time, of course. He uses the words of the tribe. But the handling of the word, the accent, a new articulation, renew them. Eugene Ionesco tribes use writing A man with a soul is not like every other man. Eugene Ionesco soul men I am, it seems, an avant-garde dramatist. It would even seem obvious since I am present here at discussions on the avant-garde theatre. It is all entirely official. But what does the term avant-garde mean? Eugene Ionesco theatre doe mean I have always considered imaginative truth to be more profound, more loaded with significance, than every day reality... Everything we dream about, and by that I mean everything we desire, is true (the myth of Icarus came before aviation, and if Ader or Bleriot started flying it is because all men have dreamed of flight). There is nothing truer than myth... Reality does not have to be: it is simply what is. Eugene Ionesco dream mean reality Oh righteous doom, that they who make Pleasure their only end, Ordering the whole life for its sake, Miss that whereto they tend. While they who bid stern duty lead, Content to follow, they, Of duty only taking heed, Find pleasure by the way. Eugene Ionesco sake missing way Why was I born, if it wasn't forever? Eugene Ionesco born forever death Dreams are reality at its most profound, and what you invent is truth because invention, by its nature, can't be a lie. Eugene Ionesco dream profound reality The more I try to explain myself, the less I understand myself. Eugene Ionesco trying 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. Eugene Ionesco answers dream fall I am not capitulating. Eugene Ionesco Good men make good rhinoceroses, unfortunately. Eugene Ionesco good-man men Every work of art (unless it is a psuedo-intellectualist work, a work already comprised in some ideology that it merely illustrates, as with Brecht) is outside ideology, is not reducible to ideology. Ideology circumscribes without penetrating it. The absence of ideology in a work does not mean an absence of ideas; on the contrary it fertilizes them. Eugene Ionesco mean ideas art I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a will to renewal. This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of crises - of rupture, repudiation and resistance. When there is no crisis, there is stagnation, petrifaction and death. All thought, all art is aggressive. Eugene Ionesco rupture believe art To tear ourselves away from the everyday, from habit, from mental laziness which hides from us the strangeness of reality, we must receive something like a real bludgeon blow. Eugene Ionesco everyday real blow Banality is a symptom of non-communication. Men hide behind their clichés. Eugene Ionesco When I was nine, the teacher asked us to write a piece about our village fete. He read mine in class. I was encouraged and continued. I even wanted to write my memoirs at the age of ten. At twelve I wrote poetry, mostly about friendship - 'Ode to Friendship.' Then my class wanted to make a film, and one little boy suggested that I write the script. Eugene Ionesco village age teacher friendship Living is abnormal. Eugene Ionesco living abnormal I was born near Bucharest, but my parents came to France a year later. 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. Eugene Ionesco parents born society world The artist can be above political parties, he can belong in a political party, he can act in politics. Eugene Ionesco politics political party artist
