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.
Interpretation
Art and thought evolve through crises and a desire for renewal, rather than remaining stagnant.
Eugene Ionesco highlights the notion that throughout history, culture has continually faced crises that drive renewal and creativity. He argues that stagnation leads to decay, while the aggressive nature of thought and art thrives on conflict and transformation, suggesting that it is through challenges and disruptions that innovation and progress emerge.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of artistic expression in times of social upheaval.
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.
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.
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.
Drama lies in extreme exaggeration of the feelings, an exaggeration that dislocates flat everyday reality.
Language should almost break up or explode in its fruitless effort to contain so many meanings.
The brightest light, the light of Italy, the purest sky of Scandinavia in the month of June is only a half-light when one compares it to the light of childhood. Even the nights were blue.
There is something about a poet which leads us to believe that he died, in many cases, as long as 20 years before his birth.
To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have to be immersed in the world, you have to go out looking for it. This becomes harder as you get older because there's less energy, the days are shorter for older people and it's not so easy to go out and immerse oneself in the world outside.
Exuberance is better than taste.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough interesting acting roles in New Zealand to sustain a career.
I like to take these unusual characters and then make them as normal as possible, because we all know that the tragedy and the abnormal always hides itself behind the normal.
Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don't want it.
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