Status Updates From Samuel Beckett

Beckett was inordinately fond of MacGowran...when MacGowran made a number of obvious hints that his consuming passion was to own something by Jack B. Yeats, Beckett gave away his beloved painting, purchased with such difficulty many years before. Why, his friends asked, had Beckett so easily given up one of the few possessions that had any real meaning for him?
“He asked me for it. He wanted it. I gave it to him.”

The telephone rang sharply on October 23, 1969... She (Suzanne) listened quietly for a moment, said a few words to the caller and hung up. She turned to face Beckett... and whispered "Quel catastrophe". She had just been told that the Swedish Academy had awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature to Samuel Beckett...

Actors, writers, old friends, casual acquaintances—all were recipients of Beckett’s generosity. Few had to ask for help, for he offered it if he even sensed the slightest need. Each gesture was performed with the exquisite courtesy and tact that governed all Beckett’s personal actions; no one was made to feel even a hint embarrassed...