Harold Pinter was an English dramatist, poet, and actor. He was one of the most influential modern British dramatists of the 20th century and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. His plays often deal with themes of powerlessness, conflict, and fear of loss of control.
What is the most famous quote by Harold Pinter ?
I think we communicate only too well, in our silence, in what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, desperate rearguard attempts to keep ourselves to ourselves. Communication is too alarming. To enter into someone else's life is too frightening. To disclose to others the poverty within us is too fearsome a possibility.
— Harold Pinter
What can you learn from Harold Pinter (Life Lessons)
- Harold Pinter teaches us to be brave and take risks in order to pursue our passions and dreams. He encourages us to be honest and open with our feelings, and to speak up for ourselves and others.
- His works also remind us to be mindful of the power of silence and the importance of understanding the complexities of relationships.
- Finally, Pinter's plays and poems demonstrate the power of art to challenge and confront the realities of life and to create a space for reflection and contemplation.
The most belligerent Harold Pinter quotes that will transform you to a better person
Following is a list of the best Harold Pinter quotes, including various Harold Pinter inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Harold Pinter.
One is and is not in the centre of the maelstrom of it all.
No matter how you look at it, all the emotions connected with love are not really immortal; like all other passions in life, they are bound to fade at some point. The trick is to convert love into some lasting friendship that overcomes the fading passion.
Language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you ... at any time.
All that happens is that the destruction of human beings - unless they're Americans - is called collateral damage.
The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.
Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.
I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett.
He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.
I suggest that US foreign policy can still be defined as "kiss my ass or I'll kick your head in." But of course it doesn't put it like that. It talks of "low intensity conflict..." What all this adds up to is a disease at the very centre of language, so that language becomes a permanent masquerade, a tapestry of lies.
Dark quotes by Harold Pinter
Referees are the law. They have a whistle. They blow it. And that whistle is the articulation of God's justice.
I never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate.
There never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art.
There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
This particular nurse said, Cancer cells are those which have forgotten how to die. I was so struck by this statement.
I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn't too bad either.
I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept.
I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.
Clinton's hands remain incredibly clean, don't they, and Tony Blair's smile remains as wide as ever. I view these guises with profound contempt.
The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law.
Quotations by Harold Pinter that are absurd and provocative
The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them.
It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.
I was brought up in the War. I was an adolescent in the Second World War. And I did witness in London a great deal of the Blitz.
Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
Be careful how you talk about God. He's the only God we have. If you let him go he won't come back. He won't even look back over his shoulder. And then what will you do?
I know the place. It is true. Everything we do Corrects the space Between death and me And you.
I don't give a damn what other people think.
It's entirely their own business. I'm not writing for other people.
There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America.
Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world.
I can't really articulate what I feel.
Occasionally it does hit me, the words on a page. And I still love doing that, as I have for the last 60 years.
I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.
One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
I don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political intelligence in my own right.
It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.
The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.
The general thrust these days is: Oh, come on, it's all in the past, nobody's interested any more, it didn't work, everyone knows what the Americans are like, but stop being naive, this is the world, there's nothing to be done about it and anyway fuck it, who cares? But let me put it this way-the dead are still looking at us, waiting for us to acknowledge our part in their murder.
My second play, The Birthday Party, I wrote in 1958 - or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day, who called it an absolute load of rubbish.
It’s very difficult to feel contempt for others when you see yourself in the mirror.
I could be a bit of a pain in the arse. Since I've come out of my cancer, I must say I intend to be even more of a pain in the arse.
I believe an international criminal court is very much to be desired.
I saw Len Hutton in his prime, Another time, another time.
Rationality went down the drain donkey's years ago and hasn't been seen since.
Beckett had an unerring light on things, which I much appreciated.
I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks.
There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.
Isn't it true that every aristocrat wants to die?
Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.
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.
I hate brandy...it stinks of modern literature.
There are some things one remembers even though they may never have happened.
The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, and anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its true place. When true silence falls we are left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.