“I only see what appears close beside me, what I best see I see ill.”

— Samuel Beckett , book The Unnamable

The Unnamable (1954)
Context: In order to obtain the optimum view of what takes place in front of me, I should have to lower my eyes a little. But I lower my eyes no more. In a word, I only see what appears close beside me, what I best see I see ill.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I only see what appears close beside me, what I best see I see ill." by Samuel Beckett?

Samuel Beckett 122

Irish novelist, playwright, and poet 1906–1989

Related quotes

“What I hear is valueless; only what I see is living, and when I close my eyes my vision is even more powerful.”

Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) Italian artist

as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p . 232
1908 - 1920, On Mystery and Creation, Paris 1913

“And you stood there in front of me just
Close enough to touch,
Close enough to hope you couldn't see
What I was thinking of.Drop everything now,
Meet me in the pouring rain.
Kiss me on the sidewalk,
Take away the pain.
'Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile.”

Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter

Sparks Fly.
Song lyrics, Speak Now (2010)

“One might have thought of sight, but who could think
Of what it sees, for all the ill it sees?”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Esthétique du Mal (1944)
Context: One might have thought of sight, but who could think
Of what it sees, for all the ill it sees?
Speech found the ear, for all the evil sound,
But the dark italics it could not propound.
And out of what sees and hears and out
Of what one feels, who could have thought to make
So many selves, so many sensuous worlds,
As if the air, the mid-day air, was swarming
With the metaphysical changes that occur,
Merely in living as and where we live.