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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
Show
Fearful
Fear
Primitive
Shows
Print
Feel
Suppose

More quotes by John Mortimer

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People will go to endless trouble to divorce one person and then marry someone who is exactly the same, except probably a bit poorer and a bit nastier. I don't think anybody learns anything.
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I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth foregoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.
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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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Marriage is like pleading guilty to an indefinite sentence. Without parole.
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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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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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The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.
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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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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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Success is good for the character.
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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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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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A war against terrorism is an impracticable conception if it means fighting terrorism with terrorism.
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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.
John Mortimer
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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
John Mortimer
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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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No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.
John Mortimer
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It is desperately important to remember when enough is enough, when you've finished the scene.
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Never believe a rumour until you hear it officially denied.
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