Hugh Leonard Quotations

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

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.

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

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

I went through life like an idiot for a great deal of the time, saying there's nothing I would change. That was a very arrogant thing to say. There's a lot I would change. There are people I would have steered clear of.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

I think with every writer there are two people there.

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

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

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.

We were married for almost 45 years. We fought all the time, it wasn't a great love or anything, it wasn't a great, all-consuming passion. She was just there. A lot of people were startled because we didn't seem devoted but we were.

I was taken completely by surprise. My wife died within a few minutes from an asthma attack. I was utterly destroyed. I was mad, crazy, I was howling.

I restrain myself a great deal. I don't say it, or I phrase it differently. But now and again I drop a lulu because I cannot resist it.

I've always believed in survival.

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

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

My grandmother made dying her life's work.

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'.

Sometimes silence resolves a conversation confused by Mad Misconstruction.

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

Gossip is more popular than literature.

No exercise brings into play all the muscles of the body in a more thorough manner, and none is more interesting than wrestling. He will find no other exercise more valuable in the cultivation of faculties which will help him to success in agility, strength, determination, coolness, and quick exercise of judgement.

A thing well done is worth doing.