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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.

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
Think
Difference
Thinking
Told
Differences
Wrong
Father
Right
Greatly
Much
Debt
Never
Remain

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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.
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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
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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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All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
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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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To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph.
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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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A war against terrorism is an impracticable conception if it means fighting terrorism with terrorism.
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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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There is always time for failure
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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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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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No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.
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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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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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The point at which beliefs meet may be more significant, more useful to contemplate, than their sources.
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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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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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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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