Keith Waterhouse Quotes

“Should not the Society of Indexers be known as Indexers, Society of, The?”

Keith Waterhouse

Bookends (1990), cited from Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell; Mr. And Mrs. Nobody; and, Bookends (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992) p. 135

“Life is a campus: in a Greenwich Village bookstore, looking for a New Yorker collection, I asked of an earnest-looking assistant where I might find the humour section. Peering over her granny glasses, she enquired, "Humour studies would that be, sir?"”

Keith Waterhouse

The Spectator, January 15, 1994

“I turn over a new leaf every day," I said. "But the blots show through.”

Keith Waterhouse book Billy Liar

Billy Liar, ch. 11

“Lying in bed, I abandoned the facts again and was back in Ambrosia.”

Keith Waterhouse book Billy Liar

Billy Liar (1959), ch. 1

“The 50s face was angry, the 60s face was well-fed, the 70s face was foxy. Perhaps it was the right expression: there was a lot to be wary about.”

Keith Waterhouse

The Observer Magazine, December 30, 1979

“Now, […] the world is beginning to look like what it is—overcrowded, dirty, noisy, smelly, and rapidly running out of resources. We're nearing the end of the rainbow, with not a crock of gold in sight.”

Keith Waterhouse

The Daily Mirror, August 17, 1970, cited from Mondays, Thursdays (London: Michael Joseph, 1976), p. 168-169