Christopher Hampton quotes

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs. (Christopher Hampton)
You see, I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth. View quote
Christopher Hampton
Masturbation is the thinking man's television. View quote
Christopher Hampton
Brecht always liked people to be aware that they were in a theatre. I said to him more than once, but Brecht, what makes you think they think they're anywhere else? View quote
Christopher Hampton
A great number of the disappointments and mishaps of the troubled world are the direct result of literature and the allied arts. It is our belief that no human being who devotes his life and energy to the manufacture of fantasies can be anything but fundamentally inadequate. View quote
Christopher Hampton
To seduce a woman famous for strict morals, religious fervor and the happiness of her marriage: what could possibly be more prestigious? View quote
Christopher Hampton
I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence. View quote
Christopher Hampton
You know very well that unless you're a scientist, it's much more important for a theory to be shapely, than for it to be true. View quote
Christopher Hampton
I like L.A., but I think whats changed is that the kinds of films I do, the mid-range dramatic film, has become an endangered species. View quote
Christopher Hampton
Since my adaptation of Ian McEwan's 'Atonement,' I get sent a lot of novels that people think will work as movies. So every now and then I make a point of sitting down and reading a couple of them. View quote
Christopher Hampton
It's great to get out of the study and work with real living and breathing people. (Christopher Hampton)
I find I have to give myself a day when I just shut myself off and do nothing but read. View quote
Christopher Hampton
It's possible to disagree with someone about the ethics of non-violence without wanting to kick his face in. View quote
Christopher Hampton
I think there's something degrading about having a husband for a rival. It's humiliating if you fail and commonplace if you succeed. View quote
Christopher Hampton
I'm ashamed to say the first play I saw at the Royal Court was mine. View quote
Christopher Hampton
There is a sort of theory that you should adapt bad books because they always make more successful films. View quote
Christopher Hampton
If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women. View quote
Christopher Hampton
The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable. View quote
Christopher Hampton
I love films. If I'd known how to get into or do it from the word go, I would have done that. View quote
Christopher Hampton
There was a moment in the early '80s when I wanted to work on films and wanted to live in L.A. View quote
Christopher Hampton
If you take a really good book, then the potential is for a really good film. But you've got to get it right. (Christopher Hampton)
Often I think the novels I read won't make very good movies - I better not say which I'm looking at for potential films! - but it's nice to have an excuse to just sit and read for a whole day. View quote
Christopher Hampton