Top 78 Quotes & Sayings by Brendan Behan

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Irish novelist Brendan Behan.

Last updated on April 14, 2025.

Brendan Francis Aidan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist playwright, and Irish Republican activist who wrote in both English and Irish. He was named by Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.

Irish - Novelist | February 9, 1923 - March 20, 1964

Source: Wikipedia

What an author likes to write most is his signature on the back of a cheque.

Brendan Behan

I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

Brendan Behan

The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.

Brendan Behan

One drink is too many for me and a thousand not enough.

Brendan Behan

No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today.

Brendan Behan

All publicity is good, except an obituary notice.

Brendan Behan

The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted.

Brendan Behan

I am a drinker with writing problems.

Brendan Behan

If you accept your limitations you go beyond them.

Brendan Behan

The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less.

Brendan Behan

No man can discover his own talents.

Brendan Behan

New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment... a place where you're least likely to be bitten by a wild goat.

Brendan Behan

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.

Brendan Behan

A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.

Brendan Behan

It is a good deed to forget a poor joke.

Brendan Behan

If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks.

Brendan Behan

I wish I'd been a mixed infant.

Brendan Behan

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.

Brendan Behan

A man is already halfway in love with any woman who listens to him.

Brendan Behan

I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.

Brendan Behan

Ah, bless you, Sister, may all your sons be bishops.

Brendan Behan

It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.

Brendan Behan

Shakespeare said pretty well everything and what he left out, James Joyce, with a judge from meself, put in.

Brendan Behan

The prospect of success in achieving our most cherished dream is not without its terrors. Who is more deprived and alone than the man who has achieved his dream?

Brendan Behan

Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action.

Brendan Behan

I say myself no depressed words just depressed minds.

Brendan Behan

I am a daylight atheist.

Brendan Behan

What the hell difference does it make, left or right? There were good men lost on both sides.

Brendan Behan

At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one's lost self.

Brendan Behan

There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.

Brendan Behan

If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it.

Brendan Behan

When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

Brendan Behan

I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.

Brendan Behan

Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day.

Brendan Behan

Many a man has decided to stay alive not because of the will to live but because of the determination not to give assorted surviving bastards the satisfaction of his death.

Brendan Behan

A pedestrian ought to be legally allowed to toss at least one hand grenade at a motorist every day.

Brendan Behan

Failure at a task may be the result of having tackled it at the wrong time.

Brendan Behan

The English and Americans dislike only some Irish--the same Irish that the Irish themselves detest, Irish writers--the ones that think.

Brendan Behan

When two men fight over a woman it's the fight they want, not the woman.

Brendan Behan

They took away our land, our language, and our religion; but they could never harness our tongues.

Brendan Behan

I saw a notice that said "Drink Canada Dry" and I've just started.

Brendan Behan

Other people's interruptions of your work are relatively insignificant compared with the countless times you interrupt yourself.

Brendan Behan

Nothing hurts more than the friendly letter that one never got around to writing.

Brendan Behan

There is no human situation so miserable that it cannot be made worse by the presence of a policeman.

Brendan Behan

Critics are like eunuchs; they can tell you what to do, but they can't do it themselves!

Brendan Behan

To get enough to eat was regarded as an achievement. To get drunk was a victory.

Brendan Behan

He was born an Englishman and remained one for years.

Brendan Behan

I think weddings are sadder than funerals, because they remind you of your own wedding. You can't be reminded of your own funeral because it hasn't happened. But weddings always make me cry.

Brendan Behan