Harold Pinter Quotes

One is and is not in the centre of the maelstrom of it all.

There are some things one remembers even though they may never have happened.

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings - unless they're Americans - is called collateral damage.

The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.

Language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you ... at any time.

Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.

I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.

I never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate.

Don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?

This particular nurse said, Cancer cells are those which have forgotten how to die. I was so struck by this statement.

The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression.

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?

I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.

I don't write with any audience in mind. I just write. I take a chance on the audience. That's what I did originally, and I think it's worked--in the sense that I find there is an audience.

Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.

Clinton's hands remain incredibly clean, don't they, and Tony Blair's smile remains as wide as ever. I view these guises with profound contempt.

It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law.

The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them.

I was brought up in the War. I was an adolescent in the Second World War. And I did witness in London a great deal of the Blitz.

I know little of women. But I've heard dread tales.

Be careful how you talk about God. He's the only God we have. If you let him go he won't come back. He won't even look back over his shoulder. And then what will you do?

How can the unknown merit reverence?

I know the place. It is true. Everything we do Corrects the space Between death and me And you.

I don't give a damn what other people think. It's entirely their own business. I'm not writing for other people.

Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world.

One's life has many compartments.

I can't really articulate what I feel.

While The United States is the most powerful nation the world has ever seen, it is also the most detested nation that the world has ever known.

Occasionally it does hit me, the words on a page. And I still love doing that, as I have for the last 60 years.

I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.

There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America.

It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.

The weasel under the cocktail cabinet.

One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.

I don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political intelligence in my own right.

There are places in my heart...where no living soul...has...or can ever...trespass.

I mean, if a thing works, if a thing is right, respect that, acknowledge it, respect it and hold to it.

I believe the US is a truly monstrous force in the world, now off the leash for obvious reasons.

My second play, The Birthday Party, I wrote in 1958 - or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day, who called it an absolute load of rubbish.

I thought the plays would speak for themselves. But they didn't.

I would never use obscene language in the office. Certainly not. I kept my obscene language for the home, where it belongs.

I no longer feel banished from myself.

I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks.

The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.

It’s very difficult to feel contempt for others when you see yourself in the mirror.

I also found being called Sir rather silly.

Rationality went down the drain donkey's years ago and hasn't been seen since.

I ought not to speak about the dead because the dead are all over the place.

Beckett had an unerring light on things, which I much appreciated.