Joe Orton: Trending quotes

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“Geraldine: I'm quite sane!
Rance: Pull yourself together. Why have you been certified if you're sane? Even for a madwoman you're unusually dense.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

“Dennis: She's turned me down. She's broken my heart.
Hal: She doesn't know what she is missing, baby.
Dennis: But she does! That's what's so humiliating.”

Loot (1965), Act I

“Truscott: I'm no fool.
Fay: Your secret is safe with me.”

Loot (1965), Act II

“Prentice: It's a fascinating theory, sir, and cleverly put together. Does it tie in with known facts?
Rance: That need not cause us undue anxiety. Civilizations have been founded and maintained on theories which refused to obey facts.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

“Geraldine: We must tell the truth!
Prentice: That's a thoroughly defeatist attitude.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

“McLeavy: I'm innocent. (A little unsure of himself, the beginnings of panic) Doesn't that mean anything to you?”

Loot (1965), Act II

“Rance: How shocking! His abnormal condition has driven him to seek refuge in religion. Always the last ditch stand of a man on the brink of disaster.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

“Truscott (shouting, knocking Hal to the floor): Under any other political system I'd have you on the floor in tears!
Hal (crying): You've got me on the floor in tears!”

Loot (1965), Act I

“Geraldine: At least give me back my clothes. I feel naked without them.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

“Fay: Have you given a thought to the priest?
Truscott: We can't have him in on it, miss. Our percentage wouldn't be worth having.
Fay: Mr McLeavy threatened to expose us.
Truscott: I've been exposed before.
Fay: What happened?
Truscott: I arrested the man. He's doing twelve years.”

Loot (1965), Act II

“Truscott: And you complain you were beaten?
Dennis: Yes.
Truscott: Did you tell anyone?
Dennis: Yes.
Truscott: Who?
Dennis: The officer in charge.
Truscott: What did he say?
Dennis: Nothing.
Truscott: Why not?
Dennis: He was out of breath with kicking.”

Loot (1965), Act I

“Fay: Have you known him long?
Hal: We shared the same cradle.
Fay: Was that economy or malpractice?
Hal: We were too young then to practice and economics still defeat us.”

Loot (1965), Act I

“On our way home we were waiting for the bus when a very fat, pompous-looking woman reeled out of a pub shouting, "Melancholia? Ad nauseam."”

Saturday 15 April 1967 (p. 137)
The Orton Diaries (1986)

“I was approached to do a film script for the Beatles. I said it would have to be an absolutely original script. Paul McCartney said do whatever you like. I said that means you'll never be able to do it.”

Interview with Barry Hanson, programme notes of Peter Gill's Royal Court production of The Erpingham Camp and The Ruffian on the Stair http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/abj76/PG/pieces/joe_orton.shtml (June 1967)

“McLeavy: Where did I go wrong? His upbringing was faultless. Did you lead him astray?
Dennis: I was innocent till I met him.
Hal: You met me when you were three days old.”

Loot (1965), Act II

“Sir — As a playgoer of forty years standing, may I say that I heartily agree with Peter Pinnell in his condemnation of 'Entertaining Mr Sloane'.I myself was nauseated by this endless parade of mental and physical perversion. And to be told that such a disgusting piece of filth now passes for humour!Today's young playwrights take it upon themselves to flaunt their contempt for ordinary decent people. I hope that the ordinary decent people of this country will shortly strike back!Yours truly,Edna Welthorpe”

Mrs
See above (p. 283 of the Orton Diaries)
The Orton Diaries (1986), The Edna Welthorpe letters

“Mrs Prentice: Are you ashamed of the fact that you write to strange men?
Prentice: There's nothing furtive in my relationship with the editor of The Guardian.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act I

“Prentice: I'm not mad. It only looks that way.
Rance: Your actions today would get the Archbishop of Canterbury declared non-compos.
Prentice: I'm not the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Rance: That will come at a later stage of your illness.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act II

“Fay: I'm innocent till I'm proved guilty. This is a free country. The law is impartial.
Truscott: Who's been filling your head with that rubbish?
Fay: I can't be had for anything. You've no proof.
Truscott: When I make out my report I shall say you've given me a confession. It could prejudice your case if I have to forge one.”

Loot (1965), Act II

“Prentice: Unnatural vice can ruin a man.
Rance: Ruin follows the accusation not the vice.”

What the Butler Saw (1969), Act II