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

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All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
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A war against terrorism is an impracticable conception if it means fighting terrorism with terrorism.
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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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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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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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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 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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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
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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 point at which beliefs meet may be more significant, more useful to contemplate, than their sources.
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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 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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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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No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.
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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 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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Never believe a rumour until you hear it officially denied.
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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 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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