Brendan Behan

"If it's natural to die then it's natural for us to want to live."

"You cannot imagine the credulity of credulous people."

"I am the master of my fate."

"I say to hell with commonsense."

"An author should write for the youth of his own generation the critics of the next and the schoolmasters of ever after."

"I respect a man who knew how to live and I respect him more if he dies for something real."

"A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants."

"I read in the papers they want to do something about my drinking but haven't done anything yet."

"New York is a heaving mass of human beings pretending to be alive."

"Every honest job is honourable."

"I was born sober as the dawn and drunker than a clockmaker by noon."

"I respect all men who die in war but not all wars in which men die."

"I have a drink problem but it has only one solution."

"The street outside was full of walking cabs."

"I have no views whatsoever on the important questions of the day."

"I have more use for my hands than I do for my head."

"Everything in moderation includes moderation."

"Some people have a terrible habit of thinking they're the greatest wit since Oscar Wilde."

"I belong to that section of the working class which despises the boss."

"Life has more imagination than we have given it credit for."

"The longer a man lives the less important his past becomes."

"Better to be a live dog than a dead lion but best of all is to be a live lion and not care what happens."

"When I was a child the Dead Sea was only sick."

"I have never been certain that the moral of an unhappy life is better than the moral of a happy one."

"There is an Irish way of paying compliments that is very like a kick in the teeth."

"I was in the Royal Navy but I was in the wrong part of the Navy."

"A man can work from sun to sun but a woman's work is never done."

"I consider myself to be a realist in my writing."

"If you have to go to confession then go to a poor man who understands sin."

"The only real failure is the failure to try."