Hugh Leonard Quotes

In life there exist two classes: first class and no class.

Arnold Bennett was a writer I admired. He was actually taking notes at his father's deathbed.

Gossip is more popular than literature.

We are all the foolishness and all the crimes we did. We're also all the kindnesses we did. I hate to think of life as if we understood time. We don't understand time.

I've always believed in survival.

My mother was passionate. She was stubborn, the dominant one in the family. She dominated my father.

I've always enjoyed a woman's company more than men's. They're usually better looking.

I came down to the living room one day and my wife was standing in the living room. It wasn't an illusion. I saw her out of the corner of my eye. The moment I saw her, she vanished.

I went through life like an idiot for a great deal of the time, saying there's nothing I would change. That was a very arrogant thing to say. There's a lot I would change. There are people I would have steered clear of.

My life is every moment of my life. It is not a culmination of the past.

The problem with Ireland is that it's a country full of genius, but with absolutely no talent.

My grandmother made dying her life's work.

No exercise brings into play all the muscles of the body in a more thorough manner, and none is more interesting than wrestling. He will find no other exercise more valuable in the cultivation of faculties which will help him to success in agility, strength, determination, coolness, and quick exercise of judgement.

It's a natural thing for people to say, you know, Who's in this book? I find myself get ting a little defensive. People come along and I'm waiting for that first question.

I'm a writer, and what I do is write. I wasn't able to do anything else.

I'm a much nicer person since my wife died. I found out what pain is, so on that level I'm much nicer.

My wife and I have enjoyed over forty years of wedded blitz.

I think with every writer there are two people there.

There is only one immutable law in life - in a gentleman's toilet, incoming traffic has the right of way.

A thing well done is worth doing.

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'.

As somebody once said, we're not punished for our sins, we're punished by them.

Sometimes silence resolves a conversation confused by Mad Misconstruction.

I don't think anyone is the perfect one to play me.

I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it.

My father I liked, but it was only after his death that I got to know him by writing the play.