British Quotes

I've always wanted to be a spy, and frankly I'm a little surprised that British intelligence has never approached me.

My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important.

Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I've allowed the people to sacrifice me at the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

I didn't know Charlie before doing the movie, but I was a huge fan of the British Queer as Folk.

I go out with a lot of British people. Some of them say I sound a little tipsy.

As they say, one thing led to another, and, ultimately, the British and Irish governments asked me to serve as chairman of the peace negotiations, which ironically began six years ago this week.

There is a marvelous turn and trick to British arrogance; its apparent unconsciousness makes it twice as effectual.

The real problem at the moment is that the banks - because of their existing culture, which is frankly anti-business, obsession with short-term trading profits, not focusing on the long term - are throttling the recovery of British industry.

Film-makers should remain true to their principles and never compromise, there is a real revival in the British film industry but there is a danger that we will become colonial servants of Hollywood. We need to maintain our own integrity.

The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right.

For an event that was wholly created in the poisonous psychological warfare kitchens of the Second World War, run by the ministries of propaganda in many countries, not just by the British or the Americans, but also the Russians and undoubtedly the world Jewish organizations.

In 1966 I became president of the British Computer Society.

In dealing with the China problem, the British and American side, which had particularly strong interests in China, should have based its judgments about the origins of the problem on direct observation of the actual circumstances at the time.

The French and the British are such good enemies that they can't resist being friends.

What we learned quite early on is what was really important to early British pop that we produced-and this is where we were distinct from almost everybody else in this respect-is that it had to reflect exactly what the audience wanted us to say.

Each section of the British Isles has its own way of laughing, except Wales, which doesn't.

The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work and you're going to hit a brick wall at some point.

The British government says that for Sinn Fein to be involved in talks the guns must be left at the door.

The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around 20,000 pounds. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child.

At the British Open, I had my opportunities, but the ball just didn't want to go in the hole on the back nine.

But we had a fantastic coach, Simon Clifford, who runs a British football youth game which teaches Brazilian techniques - which is what we wanted to incorporate into the film. And some of those things we eventually got in.

There's a tradition in British intellectual life of mocking any non-political force that gets involved in politics, especially within the sphere of the arts and the theatre.

The reason is that a military defeat of Britain will bring about the disintegration of the British Empire. This would not be of any benefit to Germany.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

The fact is that a car used by Gerry Adams and myself during the course of the Mitchell review was bugged by elements within British military intelligence.

In the last 15 or 20 years, I've watched the British press simply go to hell. There seems to be no limit, no depths to which the tabloids won't sink. I don't know who these people are but they're little pigs.

In Great Britain the price of food is at a higher level than in any other country, and consequently, the British artisan labours at a disadvantage in proportion to the higher rate of his food.

The British keep employing me, and that makes me like them. It also makes me think they're very intelligent.

Like, Mission Of Burma to me always sounded almost like they were part of the British Arty New Wave. I kind of like that. I like not being able to tell the difference.