Clive James quotes

Clive James was an Australian writer, poet, broadcaster, and literary critic, renowned for his wit and insightful commentary. His work spanned television, print, and poetry, gaining him a wide international following. He is remembered for his sharp intellect, humor, and distinctive voice in literary and cultural criticism. Here are 142 of his quotes:

She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short. (Clive James)
Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world. View quote
Clive James
Everyone has a right to a university degree in America, even if it's in Hamburger Technology. View quote
Clive James
A life without fame can be a good life, but fame without a life is no life at all. View quote
Clive James
It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are. View quote
Clive James
Fiction is life with the dull bits left out. View quote
Clive James
Among artists without talent Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say. View quote
Clive James
Twin miracles of mascara, her eyes looked like the corpses of two small crows that had crashed into a chalk cliff. View quote
Clive James
In the twelfth century the Basque fishermen of Biarritz used to hunt whales with deadly efficiency. When the whales sensibly moved away, the Basques chased them further and further, with the consequence that the fishermen of Biarritz discovered America before Columbus did. This is a matter for local pride but on a larger view it is not quite so stunning, since with the possible exception of the Swiss everybody discovered America before Columbus did. View quote
Clive James
Television is simultaneously blamed, often by the same people, for worsening the world and for being powerless to change it. View quote
Clive James
The repeat run of Fawlty Towers (BBC2) drew bigger audiences than ever and deservedly so. Statistical surveys reveal that only the television critic of the Spectator is incapable of seeing the joke, which is that Basil Fawlty has the wrong temperament to be a hotel proprietor, just as some other people have the wrong temperament to be television critics. (Clive James)
The entrée wasn't tender enough to be a paving stone and the gravy couldn't have been primordial soup because morphogenesis was already taking place. View quote
Clive James
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. View quote
Clive James
First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art. View quote
Clive James
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. View quote
Clive James
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. View quote
Clive James
It is almost better to be an impulse shirt-buyer than an impulse shoe-buyer. I have worn shirts that made people think I was a retired Mafia hit-man or a Yugoslavian sports convener from Split, but I have worn shoes that made people think I was insane. View quote
Clive James
In The Bob Hope Golf Classic (LWT) the participation of President Gerald Ford was more than enough to remind you that the nuclear button was at one stage at the disposal of a man who might have either pressed it by mistake or else pressed it deliberately in order to obtain room service. View quote
Clive James
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. View quote
Clive James
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. View quote
Clive James
Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing. Those who lack humour are without judgement and should be trusted with nothing. (Clive James)
As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks... View quote
Clive James
All intellectual tendencies are corrupted when they consort with power. View quote
Clive James
Even in moments of tranquility, Murray Walker sounds like a man whose trousers are on fire. View quote
Clive James
A sense of humour is common sense dancing. View quote
Clive James