Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. Read full biography of John Mortimer →
To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph.
The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.
I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.
No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.
All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.
Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.
There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.
I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.
The freedom to make a fortune on the stock exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedom of speech.
There is always time for failure.
The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt.
The worst fault of the working classes is telling their children they're not going to succeed.
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.