John Osborne Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of John Osborne's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Playwright John Osborne's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 31 quotes on this page collected since December 12, 1929! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
All quotes by John Osborne: Writing more...
  • I never deliberately set out to shock, but when people don't walk out of my plays I think there is something wrong.

    Thinking   Play   People  
  • Don't be afraid of being emotional. You won't die of it.

    John Osborne (2014). “Looking Back”, p.17, Faber & Faber
  • I must say it's pretty dreary living in the American Age - unless you're an American of course. Perhaps all our children will be Americans.

    Children   Age   Courses  
    John Osborne (2013). “John Osborne Plays 1: Look Back in Anger; Epitaph for George Dillon; The World of Paul Slickey; Dejavu”, p.23, Faber & Faber
  • Royalty is the gold filling in a mouthful of decay

    Gold   Decay   Filling In  
  • It is not true that drink changes a man's character. It may reveal it more clearly.

    Character   Men   May  
    John Osborne, Henry Fielding (2011). “Tom Jones”, p.48, Oberon Books
  • I must be the luckiest man in the world. Not only am I bisexual, I am also Welsh.

    Bisexual   Men   World  
  • There's no such thing as failure - just waiting for success.

    Waiting  
    John Osborne (1958). “Three Plays”
  • The British public has always had an unerring taste for ungifted amateurs.

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

    John Osborne (2013). “John Osborne Plays 1: Look Back in Anger; Epitaph for George Dillon; The World of Paul Slickey; Dejavu”, p.122, Faber & Faber
  • Let's pretend that we're human beings and that we're actually alive.

    John Osborne (2014). “Looking Back”, p.358, Faber & Faber
  • And even in the hatred of the majority, there's a kind of triumph because I know that, although they'd never admit it, they secretly respect me.

    John Osborne (1958). “Three Plays”
  • A refined sort of butcher, a woman is.

  • That voice that cries out doesn't have to be a weakling's does it?

    Voice   Doe   Cry  
    John Osborne (2013). “Look Back in Anger”, p.98, Faber & Faber
  • Laughter's the nearest we ever get, or should get, to sainthood. It's the state of grace that saves most of us from contempt.

    John Osborne, Anthony Creighton, Arnold Wesker, Bernard Kops (1964). “Epitaph for George Dillon”
  • Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.

    'The Entertainer' (1957) no. 7
  • George Bernard Shaw writes like a Pakistani who has learned English when he was twelve years old in order to become an accountant.

    Writing   Order   Years  
    John Osborne (2014). “Damn You England: Collected Prose”, p.53, Faber & Faber
  • Writers don't need love; all they require is money.

  • They spend their time looking forward to the past.

  • 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.

    Simple   Rocks   Atheism  
    John Osborne (2013). “John Osborne Plays 2: The Entertainer; The Hotel in Amsterdam; West of Suez; Time Present”, p.83, Faber & Faber
  • The schoolteacher is certainly underpaid as a childminder, but ludicrously overpaid as an educator.

    John Osborne (2014). “Damn You England: Collected Prose”, p.50, Faber & Faber
  • 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.

    Hero   Ideas   Demise  
    John Osborne, Henry Fielding (2011). “Tom Jones”, p.82, Oberon Books
  • Go on - but don't think you can kill my confidence. I've had experts doing it for years.

    John Osborne (2013). “John Osborne Plays 1: Look Back in Anger; Epitaph for George Dillon; The World of Paul Slickey; Dejavu”, p.128, Faber & Faber
  • You see I learnt at an early age what it was to be angry - angry and helpless. And I can never forget it. I knew more about - love... betrayal... and death, when I was ten years old than you will probably ever know in your life.

    Love   Betrayal   Years  
    John Osborne (1957). “Look Back in Anger”, Penguin Books
  • We all of us waited for him to die. The family sent him a check every month, and hoped he'd get on with it quietly, without too much vulgar fuss.

    Death   Dying   Too Much  
  • Marriage is rather a silly habit.

    Marriage   Silly   Habit  
  • There will be a quick rash of hairy American filth, but it shouldn't threaten the existence of decent, serious British filth.

    Filth   Serious   British  
    1967 On the opening of the USmusical Hair, in Time magazine.
  • In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea.

    Tea   London   Scandal  
    John Osborne, Henry Fielding (2011). “Tom Jones”, p.114, Oberon Books
  • Oh heavens, how I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Just enthusiasm - that's all. I want to hear a warm, thrilling voice cry out Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I'm alive!

    Voice   Long   Heaven  
    'Look Back in Anger' (1956) act 1
  • Censorship is the commonest social blasphemy because it is mostly concealed, built into us by indolence, self-interest and cowardice.

    Fear   Self   Censorship  
  • 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.

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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 31 quotes from the Playwright John Osborne, starting from December 12, 1929! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
    John Osborne quotes about: Writing