John Osborne

Notable quotes

“Jimmy Porter: They spend their time mostly looking forward to the past.”
— Look Back in Anger, Act II, sc. I (1956)
“George Dillon: [I]t's easy to answer the ultimate questions – it saves you bothering with the immediate ones.”
— Epitaph for George Dillon, Act II (1957)
“This is a letter of hate. It is for you my countrymen, I mean those men of my country who have defiled it. The men with manic fingers leading the sightless, feeble, betrayed body of my country to its death.”
— "A Letter To My Fellow Countrymen", Tribune (18 August 1961), as reprinted in The Independent (4 April 1994).
“Archie Rice: Don't clap too hard – it's a very old building.”
— Number 7; said to have been an old joke in the music-halls at the time the play was written.
“Archie Rice: I'm dead behind these eyes. I'm dead, just like the whole inert, shoddy lot out there. It doesn't matter because I don't feel a thing, and neither do they.”
— Number 8
“Archie Rice: Let me know where you're working tomorrow night and I'll come and see you.”
— Number 13; this, the music-hall entertainer Archie Rice's acid farewell to his audience, also appears on Osborne's gravestone.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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