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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.

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
Stricken
Panic
Search
Lifetime
Starting
Writer
Voice
Work
Obsesses

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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.
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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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There is always time for failure
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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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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
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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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It is desperately important to remember when enough is enough, when you've finished the scene.
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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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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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A war against terrorism is an impracticable conception if it means fighting terrorism with terrorism.
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Success is good for the character.
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Marriage is like pleading guilty to an indefinite sentence. Without parole.
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All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
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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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The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.
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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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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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Never believe a rumour until you hear it officially denied.
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To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph.
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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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