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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.

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
Took
Murdered
Book
Spy
Play
Dickens
Much
Shakespeare
People
Sat
Corner
Corners
Notes
Marlowe

More quotes by John Mortimer

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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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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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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 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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The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.
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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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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 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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There is always time for failure
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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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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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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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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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Never believe a rumour until you hear it officially denied.
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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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All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
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.
John Mortimer
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To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph.
John Mortimer