John O'Farrell (author) Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

When a man is looking for signals that a woman might be interested in him, her climbing into his bed in her underwear might reasonably be interpreted as minor encouragement. But not in the world of the new puritans. Eve tempted me with the apple then told me it was South African.

John O'Farrell
Sometimes I worried that a British government could abolish the right to vote, the right to trial by jury, the right to free speech, and as long as they didn't change the theme tune to The Archers, no one would protest very much.

John O'Farrell
Since global warming Eskimos now have twenty different words for water.

John O'Farrell
The battle between socialist purity and electoral expediency is constantly being fought within the soul of every Labour Party activist. There are no emotional standing ovations at party conference for the pragmatic trimming of a socialist programme.

John O'Farrell
I have laughter lines from watching other people's comedy and worry lines from rereading my own.

John O'Farrell
The era of Labour as the party of state intervention was over. Labour was now openly committed to a compassionate management of capitalism, if such a thing is possible.

John O'Farrell
When I was 20 I must have settled on what I thought I looked like, and now every day I'm surprised that I don't still look like that 30 years later. There must have been a reasonable-looking phase, between the spots clearing up and the hair falling out. I think it was a Thursday.

John O'Farrell
I am quite conservative about my appearance. At college, when all my friends were getting piercings or daft haircuts, I lacked the required self-confidence, so decided such vanities were a distraction from the main business of opposing Thatcher.

John O'Farrell
I found it hard working really long hours when I was my own boss. The boss kept giving me the afternoon off.

John O'Farrell
It was the first really hot weekend of the summer, when millions of Londoners are spontaneously drawn by some genetic migration instinct that sees us all jump into the Land Rover and seek out the lush greenery of the natural world that lies beside the garden centre car park.

John O'Farrell
When you consider just how right-wing Wilson and Callaghan's governments were, the idea that the Labour Party had always been some sort of pure bastion of ideological socialism until Kinnock and Blair came along is quite perverse. I don't know why they called it 'New Labour' — there's nothing new about Labour selling out and being right wing.

John O'Farrell
People who haven't seen me for a couple of decades are astonished at just how much I look like my dad. He had bushy Irish eyebrows and a nose that alcohol had turned red. Every now and then the barber trims my eyebrows and I cut back the drink.

John O'Farrell
My plan is to ignore this ageing business and hope it goes away. But if these bags under my eyes get any bigger, Ryanair will make me pay extra for them.

John O'Farrell