Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Aidan Behanwas an Irish Republican, poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish writers and poets of all time. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army. Born in Dublin into a staunchly republican family, he became a member of the IRA's youth organisation Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. However, there was also a...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth9 February 1923
CountryIreland
I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.
I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
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.
Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.
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.
I saw a notice that said "Drink Canada Dry" and I've just started.
I cannot imagine any crime worse than taking a life, can you? -It'd depend whose life.
Failure at a task may be the result of having tackled it at the wrong time.
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.
Other people's interruptions of your work are relatively insignificant compared with the countless times you interrupt yourself.
The only thing I envy in young people is their livers.
I am married to Beatrice Salkeld, a painter. We have no children, except me.
There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.
The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less.