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I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.

John Mortimer

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John Mortimer
Age: 85 †
Born: 1923
Born: April 21
Died: 2009
Died: January 16
Barrister
Novelist
Poet Lawyer
Screenwriter
Writer
Hampstead Village
Sir John Clifford Mortimer
Sir John Mortimer
John Clifford Mortimer
Show
Fearful
Fear
Primitive
Shows
Print
Feel
Suppose
Feels
Writers
Way
Laws
Flattered
Magic
Censorship
Law
Dread

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We may not be the creme de la creme, but we are the creme de la scum.
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It is desperately important to remember when enough is enough, when you've finished the scene.
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I knew nothing about farce until I read Puce a l'Oreille, and had no idea what a deadly serious business it is.
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The people look forbidding, solemn, marked by that impossible ideal, Communism, which, like Christianity, seemed to demand too much of humanity and, falling into the wrong hands, led too easily to horrible brutality.
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Marriage is like pleading guilty to an indefinite sentence. Without parole.
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When... I told my father I wanted to be a writer, he had asked me to consider my unfortunate wife, who would have me about the house all day 'wearing a dressing gown, brewing tea and stumped for words'.
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Success is good for the character.
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A war against terrorism is an impracticable conception if it means fighting terrorism with terrorism.
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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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Dying is a matter of slapstick and pratfalls. The ageing process is not gradual or gentle. It rushes up, pushes you over and runs off laughing. No one should grow old who isn't ready to appear ridiculous.
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No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.
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My father, to whom I owe so much, never told me the difference between right and wrong now I think that's why I remain so greatly in his debt.
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I don't think you ever feel a success really because everything could always be done better than you've done it.
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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
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The officers of the branch of the Force (the Obscene Publications Squad) have a discouraging club tie, on which a book is depicted being cut in half by a larger pair of scissors.
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Like childhood, old age is irresponsible, reckless, and foolhardy. Children and old people have everything to gain and nothing much to lose. It's middle-age which is cursed by the desperate need to cling to some finger-hold halfway up the mountain, to conform, not to cause trouble, to behave well.
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I suppose true sexual equality will come when a general called Anthea is found having an unwise lunch with a young, unreliable model from Spain.
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What obsesses a writer starting out on a lifetime's work is the panic-stricken search for a voice of his own.
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Check-ups are, in my experience, a grave mistake all they do is allow the quack of your choice to tell you that you have some sort of complaint that you were far happier not knowing about.
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Never believe a rumour until you hear it officially denied.
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