J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM, was an English author, novelist, playwright, scriptwriter, social commentator, man of letters and broadcaster...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth13 September 1894
writing would-be ifs
Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write.
technology thinking machines
Sometimes you might think the machines we worship make all the chief appointments, promoting the human beings who seem closest to them.
age advertising perfect-life
Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned.
believe men museums
If there was a little room somewhere in the British Museum that contained only about twenty exhibits and good lighting, easy chairs, and a notice imploring you to smoke, I believe I should become a museum man.
dream real self
But the point is, now, at this moment, or any moment, we're only cross-sections of our real selves. What we really are is the whole stretch of ourselves, all our time, and when we come to the end of this life, all those selves, all our time, will be us - the real you, the real me. And then perhaps we'll find ourselves in another time, which is only another kind of dream.
fashion bullying prayer
Our dourest parsons, who followed the nonconformist fashion of long extemporary prayers, always seemed to me to be bent on bullying God.
people fancy hierarchy
I fancy that the Hell of Too Many People would occupy a respectable place in the hierarchy of infernal regions.
sensitive sincere goodness
The point is to be good-to be sensitive and sincere.
revenge animal prison
We must beware the revenge of the starved senses, the embittered animal in its prison.
age delight youth
One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going.
pregnancy writing might
Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.
teenager war politician
Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.
apples tree plums
We complain and complain, but we have lived and seen the blossom -apple, pear, cherry, plum, almond blossom - in the sun; and the best among us cannot pretend they deserve - or could contrive - anything better.
happiness smile laughter
Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile.