The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself but when he plays the role destiny has for him.
Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have – by disrupting that order – a way of surprising.
I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.
The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.
The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.
There is only one Art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth.
You can’t spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.
Hope is the deep orientation of the human soul that can be held at the darkest times.
The salvation of the world lies in the human heart.
Every consession gives rise to further concessions, we cannot back down, because behind us there is only an abyss, we must keep our promises and demand that they be kept.
There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them.
I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.
It is not enough to invent new machines, new regulations, or new institutions. We must understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this earth.
Frank Zappa was one of the gods of the Czech underground, I thought of him as a friend. Whenever I feel like escaping from the world of the Presidency, I think of him.
People, your Government has returned to you!
Courage means going against majority opinion in the name of the truth.
The award is destined for scientists who do not fear to touch on some of the darkest aspects of being without betraying what they have achieved. On the contrary, they head in this direction.
There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause.
The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said.