Quotes by Jean Anouilh

“Inspiration is a farce that poets have invented to give themselves importance.”

“Life is very nice, but it lacks form. Its the aim of art to give it some.”

“Some men like to make a little garden out of life and walk down a path.”

“When you are forty, half of you belongs to the past . . . And when you are seventy, nearly all of you.”

“What you get free costs too much.”

“Nothing is irreparable in politics.”

“A genius knows how to make himself easily understood without being obvious about it.”

“Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage”

“It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know youre caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout -- not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What youve never said before. What perhaps you dont even know till now.”

“Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy /common clay, if you like /eating, breeding, working, counting their pennies; people who just live; ordinary people; people you cant imagine dead. And then there are the others /the noble ones, the heroes. The ones you can quite well imagine lying shot, pale and tragic; one minute triumphant with a guard of honor, and the next being marched away between two gendarmes.”

“Saintliness is also a temptation”

“What fun it would be to be poor, as long as one was excessively poor! Anything in excess is most exhilarating”

“The object of art is to give life a shape”

“A good actor must never be in love with anyone but himself”

“Our entire life consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are”

“There is love of course. And then theres life, its enemy.”

There is love of course. And then theres life, its enemy.

I spit on your happiness! I spit on your idea of life--that life that must go on, come what may. You are all like dogs that lick everything they smell. You with your promise of a humdrum happiness--provided a person doesnt ask much of life. I want everything of life, I do; and I want it now! I want it total, complete: otherwise I reject it! I will not be moderate. I will not be satisfied with the bit of cake you offer me if I promise to be a good little girl. I want to be sure of everything this very day; sure that everything will be as beautiful as when I was a little girl. If not, I want to die!

Talent is a faucet. When it is on, one must write. Inspiration is a farce that poets have invented to give themselves importance.

It bothered me that whatever was waiting wasnt waiting for me