A. A. Gill Quotes

IdleHearts / Quotes by A. A. Gill

Enjoy the best inspirational, motivational, positive, funny and famous quotes by A. A. Gill. Use words and picture quotations to push forward and inspire you keep going in life!

Image, Nobody ever forgets their first night in the bush. It’s among the

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Nobody ever forgets their first night in the bush. It's among the precious, meagre handful of life firsts that remain indelible.

—A. A. Gill

Image, Americans think the only funny Brits are John Cleese, Benny Hill and

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Americans think the only funny Brits are John Cleese, Benny Hill and whoever makes our toothpaste. They're not laughing with us, they are laughing at us.

—A. A. Gill

Image, It’s a great historical joke that when the Spanish met the Aztecs,

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It's a great historical joke that when the Spanish met the Aztecs, it was a blind date made in serve-you-right heaven. At the time, they were the two most unpleasant cultures in the entire world, and richly deserved each other. Still, the story of how stout Cortes blustered, bullied and bludgeoned his way to collapsing an entire empire with a handful of contagious hoodlums is astonishing.

—A. A. Gill

Image, My father was a film-maker. He always said he wanted to go

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My father was a film-maker. He always said he wanted to go like Humphrey Jennings, the legendary director who stepped backwards over a cliff while framing a better shot.

—A. A. Gill

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Image, The interesting adults are always the school failures, the weird ones, the

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The interesting adults are always the school failures, the weird ones, the losers, the malcontents, this isn’t wishful thinking. It’s the rule.

—A. A. Gill

Image, Celebrity is a national drama whose characters’ parts and plots are written

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Celebrity is a national drama whose characters' parts and plots are written by the tabloids, gossip columnists, websites and interactive buttons. The famous don't actually have to turn up to their own lives at all.

—A. A. Gill

Image, I walk up a dune to a beach and look out to

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I walk up a dune to a beach and look out to sea, but it's 100km away. The ships lie askew in their dry beds, at anchor for ever. Today is my son's birthday. Thousands of miles from here, his healthy lungs are blowing out candles. I should be there but I'm here with another boy, who puts his face close to mine and laughs. I smile back but realise he can't see it, because I'm wearing an antiseptic muzzles to protect me from his breath.

—A. A. Gill

Image, I don’t know how long a child will remain utterly static in

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I don't know how long a child will remain utterly static in front of the television, but my guess is that it could be well into their thirties.

—A. A. Gill

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Image, You either get the point of Africa or you don’t. What draws

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You either get the point of Africa or you don't. What draws me back year after year is that it's like seeing the world with the lid off.

—A. A. Gill

Image, Television is a constant stream of fact, opinions, lies, moral dilemmas, plots:

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Television is a constant stream of fact, opinions, lies, moral dilemmas, plots: an infinitely complex and sophisticated torrent of information. How could it not make you cleverer? The only people who ever thought television rotted the brain and made kids dumb were those with a vested interest in other ways of learning, or those who were intellectually insecure, usually about books.

—A. A. Gill

Image, A country scratching a lazy irritation at sagging doorjambs and late trains,

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A country scratching a lazy irritation at sagging doorjambs and late trains, whose greatest attribute is a collective, smelly tolerance, where a chap will put up with almost everything, which means he won't care about anything enough to get out of a chair.A country of public insouciance and private, grubby guilt, where you can believe anything as long as you don't believe it too fervently. A country where the highest aspiration is for a quiet life.

—A. A. Gill

Image, Science fiction is never about the future, in the same way history

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Science fiction is never about the future, in the same way history is rarely about the past: they're both parable formats for examining or commenting on the present.

—A. A. Gill

Image, A broadsheet obituarist once pointed out to me that veteran soldiers die

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A broadsheet obituarist once pointed out to me that veteran soldiers die by rank. First to go are the generals, admirals and air marshals, then the brigadiers, then a bit of a gap and the colonels and wing commanders and passed-over majors, then a steady trickle of captains and lieutenants. As they get older and rarer, so the soldiers are mythologised and grow ever more heroic, until finally drummer boys and under-age privates are venerated and laurelled with honours like ancient field marshals. There is something touching about that.

—A. A. Gill

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Image, We like to see death as an unfair conspiracy, and what we

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We like to see death as an unfair conspiracy, and what we want is a magic practitioner, a combination of Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes.

—A. A. Gill

Image, I still secretly believe that afternoons are the time for the test

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I still secretly believe that afternoons are the time for the test card and you shouldn't watch television when the sun is out.

—A. A. Gill

Image, Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful

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Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful that is the commitment to a new day, a continuing life.

—A. A. Gill

Image, A lobster bisque ought to be the crowning glory of the potager.

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A lobster bisque ought to be the crowning glory of the potager. And this one was excellent. Silky as a gigolo's compliment and fishy as a chancellor's promise.