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

— Eugene Ionesco

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.

— Eugene Ionesco

Culture cannot be separated from politics. The arts, philosophy and metaphysics, religion and the sciences, constitute culture. Politics are the science or art of organizing our relationships to allow for the development of life in society.

— Eugene Ionesco

Every message of despair is the statement of a situation from which everybody must freely try to find a way out.

— Eugene Ionesco

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.

— Eugene 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.

— Eugene Ionesco

Theatre is simply what cannot be expressed by any other means a complexity of words movements gestures that convey a vision of the world inexpressible in any other way.

— Eugene Ionesco

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.

— Eugene Ionesco

We have not the time to take our time.

— Eugene Ionesco

When I was nine, the teacher asked us to write a piece about our village fête. 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