Brian Friel Quotes

United Kingdom, Dramatist
January 9, 1929 – October, 2, 2015.

Brian Patrick Friel, born in Omagh, Northern Ireland, was a dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists.He has been likened to an "Irish Chekhov"[6] and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams.

Also known as Writer, Founder

Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?

Brian Friel
People with a culture of poverty suffer much less from repression than we of the middle class suffer and indeed, if I may make the suggestion with due qualification, they often have a hell of a lot more fun than we have.

Brian Friel

Confusion is not an ignoble condition.

Brian Friel
I was a member of the Nationalist Party for several years. I don't remember how long. Those were very dreary days, because the Nationalist Party... it's hard to describe what it was. I suppose it held on to some kind of little faith, you know? It wasn't even sure what the faith was, and it was a very despised enterprise by everybody.

Brian Friel
- Long
- Remember
- Faith
The Troubles are a pigmentation in our lives here, a constant irritation that detracts from real life. But life has to do with something else as well, and it's the other things which are the more permanent and real.

Brian Friel
It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Brian Friel
I know now why I stopped writing short stories. It was at the point when I recognised how difficult they were.

Brian Friel
- Writing
- Why
To remember everything is a form of madness.

Brian Friel
- Remember
- Form
- Madness

I had grandparents who were native Irish speakers, and also, two of the four grandparents were illiterate.

Brian Friel
- Irish
- Grandparents