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Clive James Biography

Vivian Leopold James, AO, CBE, FRSL (born 7 October 1939), known as Clive James, is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism.

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Clive James Quotes

Like a Volvo, Bjorn Borg is rugged, has good after-sales service, and is very dull.

Bjorn, Borg, Dull, Service, Tennis

Young men especially - I don't know if young women feel much the same - but young men think they are immortal, automatically. They have no idea of time because they have so much energy and I was like that.

Ideas, Men, Thinking, Time, Young

The inevitable effect of a biographer's hindsight is to belittle the subject's foresight.

Belittle, Effect, Foresight, Hindsight, Inevitable

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.

Air, Allowed, Civilian, Peace, Posed, War

All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish.

Effort, Increased, Movie, Ordinary, Today

As far as talent goes, Marilyn Monroe was so minimally gifted as to be almost unemployable, and anyone who holds to the opinion that she was a great natural comic identifies himself immediately as a dunce.

Dunce, Monroe, Natural, Opinion, Talent

In Italy, for the same price as a typical British hamburger meal including sweet, a builder's labourer could eat like a king - rather better in fact, because pasta dishes gain from being kept simple.

Eat, Funny, Gain, Kings, Simple, Sweet

Experts say men think of sex every 10 seconds. . . What do they think of in the other nine?

Experts, Men, Sex, Think, Thinking

Delivering the State of the Union? That bloke couldn't deliver pizza.

Bloke, Classic, Pizza, States, Union, Unions

His pear-shaped head, I could now see, was situated on top of a pear-shaped body, which his black gown caused to resemble a piece of fruit going to a funeral.

Black, Body, Funeral, Gowns, Resemble, Top

The literary critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression, may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art he is contemplating appears to do the same.

Art, Expression, Long, Work

A luxury liner is really just a bad play surrounded by water.

Bad, Liner, Luxury, Play, Surrounded, Water

A traditional fixture at Wimbledon is the way the BBC TV commentary box fills up with British players eliminated in the early rounds.

British, Early, Player, Players, Tennis, Wimbledon

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.

Artist, Give, Giving Up, Head, Turn, Wall

Humphrey Searle writes music that sounds like the theme from 'Star Wars' played backwards through a washing machine.

Machine, Star, Stars, Theme, War, Writing

The British hamburger thus symbolised, with savage neatness, the country's failure to provide its ordinary people with food which did anything more for them than sustain life.

Country, Food, People, Provide, Savage

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.

Learning, Looks, Names, Niece, Pushkin, University

You can't be young always. The day will come when everything will fall apart.

Come, Everything, Fall, Falling Apart, Young

Generally it is our failures that civilize us. Triumph confirms us in our habits.

Civilize, Confirms, Failures, Habit, Triumph

Freedom and diversity guard each other, and if a country could form the whole of one's character, Napoleon III and Victor Hugo would have been the same person. . . if national identity means anything, it means something that comes with you wherever you go, and stays with you no matter how long you stay away.

Character, Country, Diversity, Mean, Person, Wherever

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