No Exit and Three Other Plays Quotes

“HUGO [smiling]: Go to hell.
OLGA: You shouldn't have said that.
HUGO: Why not?
OLGA: One doesn't say things like that.
HUGO [astonished]: Olga, are you superstitious?
OLGA [upset]: Certainly not. [HUGO watches her attentively.]
HUGO: What is he going to do?
OLGA: It's no business of yours.
HUGO: He's going to bomb the Korsk bridge?
OLGA: Why do you want me to tell you? If something goes wrong, the less you know, the better off you are.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“OLGA. Exactly. We must get the true story here and now.
LOUIS: The story stinks. I don't want to have anything to do with it. And in any case I don't have the time to conduct a class examination.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“FIRST FURY: You see! You see! . . . That's quite true, little doll; you're less afraid of us than of
that man. Because you need us, Electra. You are our child, our little girl. You need our nails to score your skin, our teeth to bite your breast, and all our savage love to save you from your hatred of yourself. Only the suffering of your body can take your mind off your suffering soul. So come and let us hurt you. You have only those two steps to come down, and we will take you in our arms. And when our kisses sear your tender flesh, you'll forget all in the cleansing fires of pain.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“It's my one chance, and you, Electra—surely you won't refuse it to me? Try to understand. I want to be a man who belongs to some place, a man among comrades Only consider. Even the slave bent beneath his load, drop ping with fatigue and staring dully at the ground a foot in front of him—why, even that poor slave can say he's in his town, as a tree is in a forest, or a leaf upon the tree. Argos is all around him, warm, compact, and comforting. Yes, Electra, I'd gladly be that slave and enjoy that feeling of drawing the city round me like a blanket and curling myself up in it. No, I shall not go.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“The flies? How do the flies come in? us They are a symbol. But if you want to know what the gods did, look around you. See that old creature over there, creeping away like a beetle on her little black feet, and hugging the walls. Well, she's a good specimen of the squat
black vermin that teem in every cranny of this town. Now watch me catch our specimen, it's well worth inspection. Here it is. A loathsome object, you'll agree. . . . Hah! You're blinking now. Still, you're an Argive and you should he used to the white-hot rapiers of the sun. . . . Watch her wriggling, like a hooked fish! . . Now, old lady, let's hear your tale of woe. I see you're in black from head to foot. In mourning for a whole regiment of sons, is that it? Tell us, and I'll release you—perhaps. For whom are you in mourning?”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“Mere chance? Then it's by chance this room is furnished as we see it. It's an accident that
the sofa on the right is a livid green, and that one on the left's wine-red. Mere chance? Well, just
try to shift the sofas and you'll see the difference quick enough. And that statue on the mantelpiece,
do you think it's there by accident? And what about the heat here? How about that? [A
short silence.] I tell you they've thought it all out. Down to the last detail. Nothing was left to
chance. This room was all set for us.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“No. Don't look up. I know what you're hid-ing with your hands. I know you've no face left.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“She is wearing her black dress. She isn’t crying, but she never did cry, anyhow. It’s a bright sunny day and she’s like a black shadow creeping down the empty street.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“¿Quieres creer en mí? Te querría entonces más que a mí mismo.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“Tú serás lo que quieras: agua pura, agua sucia. Te reconocerás en el fondo de mis ojos como tú te deseas.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“Mientras que tú piensas: agua pura, querida agua pura, solo estaré a medias en este lugar, solo a medias seré culpable, seré agua pura allí contigo.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“No, I won't listen any more, you've done me quite enough harm already. You came here with your kind, girlish face and your eager eyes—and you made me forget my hatred. I unlocked my hands and I let my one and only treasure slip through them. You lured me into thinking one could cure the people here by words. Well, you saw what happened. They nurse their disease; they've got to like their sores so much that they scratch them with their dirty nails to keep them festering. Words are no use for such as they. An evil thing is conquered only by another evil thing, and only violence can save them.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“I could never bear the idea of anyone’s expecting something from me. It always made me want to do just the opposite.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“And you know what wickedness is, and shame, and fear. There were days when you peered into yourself, into the secret places of your heart, and what you saw there made you faint with horror. And then, next day, you didn’t know what to make of it, you couldn’t interpret the horror you had glimpsed the day before. Yes, you know what evil costs.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“It's an idiotic story, like all stories. If you look at it from a distance, everything holds togehter, more or less; but if you get up close to it, it busts apart. One action is over too quickly. It seems to happen almost spontaneously and you don't know whether you did it because you wanted to or because you couldn't hold it back.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays