Dario Fo Quotations

Our homeland is the whole world. Our law is liberty. We have but one thought, revolution in our hearts.

It is hard for power to enjoy or incorporate humour and satire in its system of control.

A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.

Know how to live the time that is given you.

For some time it's been my habit to use images when preparing a speech: rather than write it down, I illustrate it.

Comedy makes the subversion of the existing state of affairs possible.

It is from him, from Beolco Ruzzante, that I've learned to free myself from conventional literary writing and to express myself with words that you can chew, with unusual sounds, with various techniques of rhythm and breathing, even with the rambling nonsense-speech of the 'grammelot.'

With comedy I can search for the profound.

I am the jongleur. I leap and pirouette, and make you laugh. I make fun of those in power, and I show you how puffed up and conceited are the big shots who go around making wars in which we are the ones who get slaughtered. I reveal them for what they are. I pull out the plug, and... pssss... they deflate.

I felt like an extraordinary hero. I was only five or six and I had the whole of life in my hands. Even if I had been driving the carriage of the sun I could not have felt any better.

Every artistic expression is either influenced by or adds something to politics.

It is extremely dangerous to talk about limits or borders. It is vital, instead, that we remain completely open, that we are always involved, and that we aim to contribute personally in social events.

Culturally, I have always been part of the proletariat. I lived side by side with the sons of glassblowers, fishermen and smugglers. The stories they told were shaper satires about the hypocrisy of authority and the middle classes, the two-facedness of teachers and lawyers and politicians. I was born politicized.

We had extremely democratic town councils in medieval Italy which knew the value of working together, and every now and then, down the centuries, this spirit returns.

We thought the church had withdrawn from interfering in Italian politics... but instead there is a terrible resurgence. These are ugly signs for freedom of expression.

Every time you touch those who have power over the media, they seek to stop you.

Even before Europe was united in an economic level or was conceived at the level of economic interests and trade, it was culture that united all the countries of Europe. The arts, literature, music are the connecting link of Europe.

Although, this is often used with negative connotations, I see ideology as an inherent part of culture.

Nevertheless, the mode, the justification, and all the games involved in this war were dishonest.

Real socialism is inside man. It wasn't born with Marx. It was in the communes of Italy in the Middle Ages. You can't say it is finished.

When I was a boy, unconsciously, spontaneously I learned the art of telling ironic stories.

All forms of power - even based on the consensus of the democratic system - react when they are being attacked, or when those who exercise power become a target.

In a way, the American side descended to Saddam's level, which happens often in these types of circumstances. That is why the people in Iraq do not accept the current state of affairs.

We must hold primary elections to choose the center-left candidate for mayor of Milan,

I am interested, too, in satirical theater, in the grotesque, or even in tragedy at times, but I am mostly comfortable with comedy.

It is not just a question of experience, nor is it a question of age ... There are some people who live only 20 years, but many, many people remember them because they knew how to live the time that was given to them. I'm not suggesting that you should live only 20 years. Live as long as you can, but from time to time, think '20 years, 20 years, 20 years', and put them together.

We thought the church had withdrawn from interfering in Italian politics ... but instead there is a terrible resurgence. These are ugly signs for freedom of expression.

And he that will go to bed sober, Falls with the leaf still in October.

We are stark naught all, bad's the best of us.

Nothing is thought rare Which is not new and follow'd, yet we know That what was worne some twenty yeare agoe, Comes into grace againe.

Health and an able body are two jewels.

Scandals are the fertilizer of Western democracy.

For some time its been my habit to use images when preparing a speech: rather than write it down, I illustrate it.

Best while you have it use your breath, There is no drinking after death.

Blush at your faults.

Tidy fees are the most effective remedy, both for the doctor and the patient.

I had the great good fortune to be born in a mad village. It was the kind of village that you could not actually invent.