Harold Pinter Quotes

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of
blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute
contempt for the concept of international law.

The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.

What sound was that?

I turn away, into the shaking room.
What was that sound that came in on the dark?
What is this maze of light it leaves us in?
What is this stance we take,
To turn away and then turn back?
What did we hear?

It was the breath we took when we first met.

Listen. It is here.

"Listen. You know what it's like when you're in a room with the light on and then suddenly the light goes out? I'll show you. It's like this."
He turns out the light.
BLACKOUT

EMMA: We’re lovers.
ROBERT: Ah, yes. I thought it might be something like that. Something along those lines.
EMMA: When?
ROBERT: What?
EMMA: When did you think?
ROBERT: Yesterday. Only yesterday. When I saw his handwriting on the letter. Before yesterday I was quite ignorant.
EMMA: Ah. (pause) I’m sorry.
ROBERT: Sorry? (silence) How long?
EMMA: Some time.
ROBERT: Yes, but how long exactly?
EMMA: Five years.
ROBERT: Five years?

The majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lies. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

what are you but a corpse waiting to be washed?

You are in no man's land. Which never moves, which never changes, which never grows older, but remains forever, icy and silent.

JERRY: I was best man at your wedding. I saw you in white. I watched you glide by in white.
EMMA: I wasn’t in white.
JERRY: You know what should have happened?
EMMA: What?
JERRY: I should have had you, in your white, before the wedding. I should have blackened you, in your white wedding dress, blackened you in your bridal dress, before ushering you into your wedding, as your best man.

إنني أكره البراندي .. له طعم الأدب الحديث البغيض

But death permits you
To arrange your hours
While he sucks the honey
From your lovely flowers

If you have only one of something you can’t say it’s the best of anything.

I can’t believe that what anyone is at this moment saying has ever happened has never happened. Nothing has ever happened. Nothing. This is the only thing that has ever happened.

Stan, don't let them tell you what to do!

RUTH: If you take the glass…I’ll take you.