Clive James (1939–2019,) born Vivian James, was an Australian-British writer, poet, essayist, critic, television personality, and commentator on popular culture. Known for his dry, deadpan humor, he achieved mainstream success in the U.K., first as a writer for television and later as the lead in his own television programs.
Born in Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia, James studied at the universities of Sydney and Cambridge. He began writing criticism for literary magazines, before serving as a television critic for The Observer 1972–82. He went on to write many works of non-fiction, fiction, and verse, and four volumes of autobiography.
James was known as a perceptive cultural commentator. His television shows included Saturday Night People (1978–80,) Clive James on Television (1982–84, 1988,) The Late Clive James (1983–87,) Saturday Night Clive and Sunday Night Clive (1989–94,) and The Clive James Show (1995–98.) His novels include The Silver Castle (1996.)
James’s four volumes of autobiography are Unreliable Memoirs (1980,) Falling Towards England (1985,) May Week was in June (1990,) and North Face of Soho (2006.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Clive James
The sure sign of a weak man who ascends to glory is that he can’t tolerate having strong men around him.
—Clive James
Among artists without talent Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say.
—Clive James
Stop worrying—nobody gets out of this world alive.
—Clive James
Topics: Worry
All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish.
—Clive James
The question of originality, if it arises at all, can never be peripheral: originality is more than a requirement in good poetry, it is a description of it.
—Clive James
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