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Quotes by British Authors


"I had been in a film, playing a young British aristocrat. My wife told me that she was invited to a dinner and she invited me to dinner and the hostess had seen me and said, 'You cannot bring him.' but I think that I've done enough to shatter the image."

"The problem to solve is, whether a single or a double government would be most advantageous; and, in considering that point, I am met by this difficulty - that I cannot see that the present form of government is a double government at all."

"To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name."

"That's the thing about destiny: It can't be predicted, and it's usually pretty odd."

"When I've gone back to work, it's always with that sense of inevitability. That may be a complete delusion, but it's the one that I need to get out of bed and go about my business. That sense that I can't avoid this thing. I better just get on with it."

"Mma Ramotswe tucked the cheque safely away in her bodice. Modern business methods were all very well, she thought, but when it came to the safeguarding of money there were some places which had yet to be bettered."

"The BBC produces wonderful programmes; it also produces a load of old rubbish."

"I am a grandmother now, and that means age is creeping on, creeping on."

"There was no last animal I treated. When young farm lads started to help me over the gate into a field or a pigpen, to make sure the old fellow wouldn't fall, I started to consider retiring."

"The house seemed so different at night. Everything was in its correct place, of course, but somehow the furniture seemed more angular and the pictures on the wall more one-dimensional. She remembered somebody saying that at night we are all strangers, even to ourselves, and this struck her as being true."

"Let your doubts & fears melt away, as you fulfill your life's destiny & goals."


"When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it."

"This was hell then, it wasn't anything to worry about: it was just his own familiar room."


"I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas."

"There's a feeling that strength is determined by the size of a union. That clearly is nonsense."

"I've never seen a man who understands so little about women and yet is so led about by them."

"Symbolism perhaps is a bit in your face, and I've tried my best to control that as best I can as I've grown older and thought that one could approach something with a little more subtlety."

"I did the pilot, and when they came through and said they were going to put it on the air, I had already some dates in the book with my band and so on. So Barry did the first one, he may have done a few more than the first one in the series, and I took it up from then."

"The better organized the state, the duller its humanity."


"No, I've never thought that I was gay. And that's not something you think. It's something you know."

"But to put out a greatest hits on one CD was totally impossible, I just couldn't do it. The best compromise was to put out two CDs - Early Days - which is what it is - and Latter Days."

"The erotic is not about nudity and nudity is rarely erotic. The erotic is subtle, a feeling, a gesture, a mood, a story frozen in the moment that holds you breathless waiting for the next moment. Understand this, and you understand the erotic."

"Get to know the Chef and you will start to enjoy dining out even more."

"Thus, the struggle for peace includes the struggle for freedom and justice for the masses of all countries."

"Composers, like authors, have a lot in common. Our main goal is to connect with the listener emotionally."

"As a Republican, I am all for competition."


"I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance."


"But the development of human society does not go straight forward; and the epic process will therefore be a recurring process, the series a recurring series - though not in exact repetition."

"I have no intention of discussing my private life with anyone."

"Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins."

"I think that Star Wars revolutionized not only sci-fi movies, but also the entire industry in the way that things are done."

"Don't eat the bread unless you want to leave bread crumbs."

"We believe that within five years, 96 percent of British consumers will have access to the Internet, whether it be through a personal computer, a set-top box or a mobile phone."

"Anybody can lose,' cautioned Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. 'You need to remember that every time you win."
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