Hugh Leonard Quotes

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

A thing well done is worth doing.

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

Sometimes silence resolves a conversation confused by Mad Misconstruction.

Gossip is more popular than literature.

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

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

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

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'.

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

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

I think with every writer there are two people there.

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

I've always believed in survival.

My grandmother made dying her life's work.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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