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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
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Writers
Way
Laws
Flattered
Magic
Censorship
Law
Dread
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Fearful
Fear
Primitive
Shows
Print
Feel
Suppose

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All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
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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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We may not be the creme de la creme, but we are the creme de la scum.
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The point at which beliefs meet may be more significant, more useful to contemplate, than their sources.
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It is desperately important to remember when enough is enough, when you've finished the scene.
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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
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There is always time for failure
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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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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 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 only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.
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I found criminal clients easy and matrimonial clients hard. Matrimonial clients hate each other so much and use their children to hurt each other in beastly ways. Murderers have usually killed the one person in the world that was bugging them and they're usually quite peaceful and agreeable.
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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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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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There's more of yourself in a book than a play. that's why we know all about Dickens and not much about Shakespeare. Ben Jonson murdered people Marlowe was a spy Shakespeare just sat in the corner and took notes.
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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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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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Success is good for the character.
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No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.
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I had inherited what my father called the art of the advocate, or the irritating habit of looking for the flaw in any argument.
John Mortimer