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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.

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
Done
Feel
Feels
Really
Always
Success
Think
Better
Thinking
Ever
Everything

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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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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All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
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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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Marriage is like pleading guilty to an indefinite sentence. Without parole.
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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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Never believe a rumour until you hear it officially denied.
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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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Success is good for the character.
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There is always time for failure
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Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
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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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Hell must be a place where you are only allowed to read what you agree with.
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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.
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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 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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The point at which beliefs meet may be more significant, more useful to contemplate, than their sources.
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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