Does anyone know the source of this quotation.  I think the source is
Irish and it may have been used in a Guinness advertisement.

"perhaps my best days are past me, but I wouldn't want them back, not
with the fire that's in me now!"

Hi,
     The quotation comes from "Krapp's Last Tape"- a short play
written by Samuel Beckett(1906-1909). It was a performance in the off
broadway season, in or about the 1960's. The synopsis of the play is
that a man, Krapp, an old man at 69 years, visits himself back when he
was 30 years younger, by playing back the autobiographical tape he had
recorded on his 39th birthday and hears himself say the lines,
"Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness.
But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I
wouldn't want them back.".
    

This information came from:

http://www.bostondirectorslab.com/spring2002_release.html


You can view the script at:

http://www.msu.edu/user/sullivan/BeckettKrapp.html

     
     Also, there is a German band, with a song called "Samuel
Beckett's Telephone", which has some of the above mentioned quote in
it.

You can view the lyrics at: 

http://www.eliza-day.de/lyrics/samuel_beckett_s_telephone/samuel_beckett_s_telephone.html


For more information on Samuel Beckett (very complete site, in my
opinion):

http://home.sprintmail.com/~lifeform/Beck_Links.html


For buying information:


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802151345/103-4051631-1559066


Google searches used for this information:

"Fire in me now"
"Samuel Beckett"
"Krapp's Last Tape"

I Hope this is what you were looking for
Nenna-GA

---

Clarification of Answer by nenna-ga on 19 Aug 2002 22:50 PDT

If you wouldn't mind, could you rate this answer so i know what i
could do better, if anything, next time......thanks :)

It might be noted that this recording forms the final words heard in
the play. The younger Krapp probably means them, or tries to believe
them to be true. But the older Krapp, hearing them on the stage at the
end of his life, scorns the "fire" and longs hopelessly for his best
years to be with him again.

It's a fine fine play.