adulthood

answer

arts

avant-garde

banality

beauty

belief

boredom

busyness

childhood

circle

civil servant

critic

death drive

doctor

drama

ephemeral

explanation

good deed

goodness

horror

human condition

hurry

idea

ideology

intelligence

logic

mediocrity

memory

myth

play (theater)

poet

prediction

question

realism

reality

solitude

theater

totalitarianism

William Shakespeare

work of art

writer

youth

nationality

Romanian

occupation / innovator as

seat 6 of the Académie française

French

playwright

painter

diarist

literary critic

performing artist

illustrator

scientific organization

Romanian Academy

Académie Française

Comité des intellectuels pour l'Europe des libertés

College of 'Pataphysics

Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts

innovator in the field of

performing arts

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

is that which begins when things cease to astonish us, when the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence.

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.

is not what enlightens. It is the question.

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

is only understood by one who understands the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful.

If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art.

is man's most useless ... and essential ... activity.

The Arts are man's most useless ... and essential ... activity.

is the opponent of an existing system, and as such, an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying because for him, any established form of expression is also a form of oppression.

An avant-garde man is like an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying, against which he rebels... for like any system of government, an established form of expression is also a form of oppression. The avant-garde man is the opponent of an existing system. Eugene Ionesco

is an enemy inside a city it is bent on destroying.

An avant-garde man is like an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying, against which he rebels; for like any system of government, an established form of expression is also a form of oppression. The avant-garde man is the opponent of an existing system.

is a symptom of non-communication. Men hide behind their cliches.

Banality is a symptom of non-communication. Men hide behind their cliches.

is a precious trace that eternity causes to appear to us and that it takes away from us. It is a manifestation of eternity, and a sign of death as well.

Beauty is a precious trace that eternity causes to appear to us and that it takes away from us. A manifestation of eternity, and a sign of death as well.

is far less important than the reason that a person believes what they believe.

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

is a symptom of security and flourishes when one feels safe.

Boredom flourishes too, when you feel safe. It's a symptom of security.

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. Its end is when things cease to astonish us.

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.

is over when things cease to astonish us, when the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence.

is over as soon as one knows one is going to die, so one can be grown up at seven.

As soon as one knows one is going to die, childhood is over.... So one can be grown up at seven. Then, I believe most human beings forget what they have understood, recover another sort of childhood that can last all their lives. It is not a true childhood but a kind of forgetting. Desires and anxieties are there, preventing you from having access to the essential truth.

is over the moment things are no longer astonishing.

Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing.

is wont to turn vicious once you stroke its back.

Describe a circle, stroke its back and it turns vicious.

is one who should describe, and not prescribe.

The critic should describe, and not prescribe.

is a thing we should cultivate, develop, water like a plant, and let grow unhindered for suffering and fear are born from its repression.

Since the death instinct exists in the heart of everything that lives, since we suffer from trying to repress it, since everything that lives longs for rest, let us unfasten the ties that bind us to life, let us cultivate our death wish, let us develop it, water it like a plant, let it grow unhindered. Suffering and fear are born from the repression of the death wish.

is perhaps only an instinct that is mistaken.

Eugene IonescoThinkers

Eugene Ionesco