She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short. Clive James More Quotes by Clive James More Quotes From Clive James The rattle of plastic keys reminds me of a squadron of butterflies failing to fight their way out of a paper bag. Clive James butterfly fighting keys How much atonement is enough? The bombing must be allowed as at least part-payment: those of our young people who are concerned about the moral problem posed by the Allied air offensive should at least consider the moral problem that would have been posed if the German civilian population had not suffered at all. Clive James air war peace The provincial intellectual is doomed to arguing at low level... there is still no Australian literary world, not in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide. It is some consolation to realise that there is no literary world in Birmingham or Los Angeles either. I have heard there is one in Montreal, but I don't believe it. The literary world is in London and New York, the only cities big enough to sustain magazines which can afford to reject copy. Clive James new-york believe art Almost 70 years have gone by, and I've still got that feeling when I write... Writing, for me, is still it. It has always been the basis of everything I do. I'm a writer who performs, not a performer who writes. I love the act of writing. It's still a thrill for me. Clive James writing years art I was wrong, however, to suppose that Sellers thought the world revolved around him. He thought the cosmos did too, and history, and the fates... Like every egomaniac, he behaved as if everybody else spent their day being as interested in him as he was. Clive James egomaniacs cosmos fate One of the virtues of the NHS... it doesn't worry you about money at the moment when you're least capable of doing anything about it. Clive James nhs classic worry I was brought up on the proletarian left, and I remain there. The fair go for workers is fundamental, and I don't believe the free market has a mind. Clive James fundamentals mind believe Here was my first lesson on the resolutely maintained untidiness and ill-health of the English upper orders. In baggy evening dress and old before their time, they displayed gapped and tangled teeth in loosely open mouths. Gently shedding dandruff, they lurched across the lawn. When they stood at the bar they looked like Lee Trevino Putting. Clive James humorous funny order Experts say men think of sex every 10 seconds... What do they think of in the other nine? Clive James men sex thinking She wasn't just beautiful. She was like the sun coming up: coming up giggling. She was giggling as if she had just remembered something funny. Clive James classic sun beautiful I work on the assumption, or let it be the fear, that the reader will stop reading if I stop being interesting. Clive James reading writing interesting Reading and writing... are exciting. The most exciting things I can think of. And now, as I reflect... I have to say that I've been lucky in that I'm amused by what I do - sufficiently amused. Clive James reading writing art You can never get a woman to sit down and listen to a drum solo. Clive James solo down-and women The secret for an artist is to make that a subject and not bang your head against the wall and give up. But to turn it into and treat the new subject matter, which is one's own vanishing. Clive James wall giving-up artist Sometimes I feel if I was young again, I would wrap a bandana around my head like Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and I would become a pirate of the Web. And I would go around stealing poems and assembling into one spot like a treasure cave. Clive James pirate treasure caves People should be stopped from writing poetry. There's far too much of it. And if they're any good, they'll go ahead anyways. Clive James too-much writing people This quality becomes important at a time when almost everyone is a poet. And as I said, we live in an age where almost everybody is a poet, but scarcely anyone can write a poem. Clive James important age writing I've got life for a subject because as life starts to drain away, you start seeing very clearly what life is, for the first time. Clive James drains life-is firsts You can't be young always. The day will come when everything will fall apart. Clive James falling-apart young fall My niece is - her name is Sasha, is currently learning Russian at Melbourne University and I look forward to the day when I can talk to her about Pushkin. Clive James niece names looks
