Quotes By Brendan Behan

There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.

I wish I'd been a mixed infant.

Shakespeare said pretty well everything and what he left out, James Joyce, with a judge from meself, put in.

I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.

I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.

The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted.

I am a daylight atheist.

I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.

What the hell difference does it make, left or right? There were good men lost on both sides.

I am a drinker with writing problems.

One drink is too many for me and a thousand not enough.

It is a good deed to forget a poor joke.

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.

When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

I say myself no depressed words just depressed minds.

Ah, bless you, Sister, may all your sons be bishops.

New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment... a place where you're least likely to be bitten by a wild goat.

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.

All publicity is good, except an obituary notice.

The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less.

The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.

If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks.