When I was collecting material for a political gossip column, and someone said something interesting, I would wait for them to add, ‘and I don’t want to read that in your magazine!’ In which case I wouldn’t use it. But if they didn’t remember to say it, I’d nip off to the loo, write the story up, come back and change the subject. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
We all have our opinions. But I suspect that writers are actually less worth heeding, because they regard themselves as so uniquely important, so culturally sensitive. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
Denis Healey refused to contribute an article to the ‘Guardian’ about his intentions, and was punished by the electorate – and then all Labour MPs – for his presumption in assuming they already knew everything about him. He became famously the best prime minister we never had. Perhaps. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
During my own gap year, I learned an invaluable lesson – that I was a lousy teacher. Even though the children I ‘taught,’ in upcountry Uganda, were desperate for qualifications, they largely ignored me. Until, that is, I realised that they wanted to hear about other young persons around the world. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
The Chinese do make vast quantities of wine for home consumption, but you wouldn’t want to drink it yourself. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
A married vicar is likely to regard his vocation as a job – a tough and ill-paid one, to be sure – but a priest is seen as a pillar of the community, answerable only to his parishioners and his God, rather than to a wife and children. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
British diplomats who worked in Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis are deeply upset by Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning film ‘Argo,’ which suggests they refused shelter to the group who managed to get out of the U.S. embassy. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
I’ve served on five different juries, and many of them were bonkers in their own way. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
One of the pleasures of staying with friends is that you get to browse their shelves. I always arrive with a book, but I almost never read it. It would be like sitting at their dinner table and opening a packet of sandwiches. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
While it is entirely untrue that Canadians lack a sense of humour, the funniest ones tend to head south: Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox. Simon Hoggart Read Quote
