Excerpts from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

“VLADIMIR:
One daren't even laugh any more.
ESTRAGON:
Dreadful privation.
VLADIMIR:
Merely smile. (He smiles suddenly from ear to ear, keeps
smiling, ceases as suddenly.) It's not the same thing. Nothing
to be done. (Pause.) Gogo.” (Beckett 7)

“ESTRAGON:
(his mouth full, vacuously). We're not tied?
VLADIMIR:
I don't hear a word you're saying.
ESTRAGON:
(chews, swallows). I'm asking you if we're tied.
VLADIMIR:
Tied?
ESTRAGON:
Ti-ed.
VLADIMIR:
How do you mean tied?
ESTRAGON:
Down.
VLADIMIR:
But to whom? By whom?
ESTRAGON:
To your man.
VLADIMIR:
To Godot? Tied to Godot! What an idea! No question of it.
(Pause.) For the moment.” (Beckett 26)

“LUCKY:…personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without
extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly
with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell…” (Beckett 65)

“ESTRAGON:
What am I to say?
VLADIMIR:
Say, I am happy.
ESTRAGON:
I am happy.
VLADIMIR:
So am I.
ESTRAGON:

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So am I.
VLADIMIR:
We are happy.
ESTRAGON:
We are happy. (Silence.) What do we do now, now that we are
happy?
VLADIMIR:
Wait for Godot. (Estragon groans. Silence.) Things have changed here since yesterday.”
(Beckett 91-92)

“ESTRAGON:
All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR:
They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON:
Like leaves.
VLADIMIR:
Like sand.
ESTRAGON:
Like leaves.
Silence.
VLADIMIR:
They all speak at once.
ESTRAGON:
Each one to itself.
Silence.
VLADIMIR:
Rather they whisper.
ESTRAGON:
They rustle.
VLADIMIR:
They murmur.
ESTRAGON:
They rustle.
Silence.
VLADIMIR:
What do they say?
ESTRAGON:
They talk about their lives.
VLADIMIR:
To have lived is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON:
They have to talk about it.
VLADIMIR:
To be dead is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON:

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It is not sufficient.
Silence.
VLADIMIR:
They make a noise like feathers.
ESTRAGON:
Like leaves.
VLADIMIR:
Likes ashes.
ESTRAGON:
Like leaves.
Long silence.” (Beckett 97-98)

“VLADIMIR:
Say something!
ESTRAGON:
I'm trying.
Long silence.
VLADIMIR:
(in anguish). Say anything at all!
ESTRAGON:
What do we do now?
VLADIMIR:
Wait for Godot.
ESTRAGON:
Ah!
Silence.” (Beckett 98)

“ESTRAGON:
We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression
we exist?” (Beckett 112)

“VLADIMIR:
But at this place, at this
moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not.” (Beckett 133)

“POZZO:
(suddenly furious.) Have you not done tormenting me with
your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is
that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I
went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one
day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not
enough for you?” (Beckett 154)

“ESTRAGON:
You dreamt it. (Pause.) Let's go. We can't. Ah! (Pause.) Are you
sure it wasn't him?

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VLADIMIR:
Who?
ESTRAGON:
Godot.
VLADIMIR:
But who?
ESTRAGON:
Pozzo.
VLADIMIR:
Not at all! (Less sure.) Not at all! (Still less sure.) Not at all!” (Beckett 156)

"The confusion is not my invention ...It is all around us and our only chance now is to let it
in. The only chance of renovation is to open our eyes and see the mess. It is not a mess you
can make sense of . . . When Heidegger and Sartre speak of a contrast between being and
existence, they may be right. I don't know, but their language is too philosophical for me. I
am not a philosopher. One can only speak of what is in front of him, and that now is simply
the mess.” (Samuel Beckett to Tom Driver, 1961)