John Osborne Quotes

Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.

- John Osborne

It is widely held that too much wine will dull a man's desire. Indeed it will in a dull man.

- John Osborne

Heaven be thanked, we live in such an age when no man dies for love except upon the stage.

- John Osborne

Go on - but don't think you can kill my confidence. I've had experts doing it for years.

- John Osborne

Here we are, we're alone in the universe, there's no God, it just seems that it all began by something as simple as sunlight striking on a piece of rock. And here we are. We've only got ourselves. Somehow, we've just got to make a go of it. We've only ourselves.

- John Osborne

Why do I do this every Sunday? Even the book reviews seem to be the same as last week's. Different books same reviews.

- John Osborne

I never deliberately set out to shock, but when people don't walk out of my plays I think there is something wrong.

- John Osborne

It is easy to answer the ultimate questions - it saves you bothering with the immediate ones.

- John Osborne

In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea.

- John Osborne

The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say - or their beliefs - or sex.

- John Osborne

It is not true that drink changes a man's character. It may reveal it more clearly.

- John Osborne

Heroes, whatever high ideas we may have of them, are mortal and not divine. We are all as God made us and many of us much worse.

- John Osborne

There's no such thing as failure - just waiting for success.

- John Osborne

They spend their time looking forward to the past.

- John Osborne