In the first comprehensively new book of its kind for decades, Oxford University Press is publishing the world’s most memorable quotes and one liners for over 600 areas of human life, ranging from acting, the army, and mothers to old age, the Internet, and the weather. The Oxford Dictionary of Thematic Quotations immortalizes the pithy statements of over 1,000 people including Gerry Adams, Princess Anne, Joan Collins, Ben Elton, Ice Cube, and Jeremy Paxman.
The new guide also highlights 14 people who are so talked about that they are judged worthy of being counted as themes in their own right - Jane Austen, Bach, Beethoven, Churchill, Princess Diana, Hitler, Henry James, James Joyce, Lloyd George, Marilyn Monroe, Mozart, Ronald Reagan, Shakespeare, and Margaret Thatcher. Despite the many new voices, it also confirms the long lead enjoyed by Samuel Johnson, Shakespeare, Shaw, Wilde, Churchill, the Bible - and that old favourite Anon, as the most quotable sources available.
Theme by theme, hit quote by hit quote, the new book lays bare the obsessions of our times, tracing back in time - and bringing up to date - such areas as Appearance, Boredom, Consumer Society, Gossip, Cosmetics (‘So much lipstick must rot the brain’ - Germaine Greer), Press Photographers (‘I’d say our newspapers paid far too much for them.’ - Rupert Murdoch), Fashion, Fat (‘I would rather be round and jolly than thin and cross’ - Ann Widdecombe), Animal rights, Luxury, Neighbours, Shopping (‘Buying is much more American than thinking’ - Andy Warhol) - and Murder.
William S Burroughs, Ken Saro-Wiwa and Timothy Leary (‘Why not, why not, why not. Yeah.’) win the only recently taken places for most memorable Last Words, joining the likes of Nelson and the Titanic. The new book records the best 11 quotes about the Royal family in a section on its own - a list that includes both Michael Parkinson (‘if she lived on a council estate in Sheffield she’d probably be in council care’) and Hardy Amies on the Queen (‘to make someone that height look regal is difficult’). It also brings to life a wide range of opposing views on different subjects. ‘Warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers’ is how John Major recalls Britain - compared to Tony Benn’s ‘When I think of Cool Britannia, I think of old people dying of hypothermia’. Equally divided, this time on the subject of middle age, are Martin Amis (‘you don’t know the language’) and Maeve Binchy (‘time of huge goodwill’).
Unexpectedly down to earth are Princess Anne on children (‘the very idea that all children want to be cuddled by a complete stranger, I find completely amazing’), David Attenborough (‘I am not over fond of animals’), and Prince Philip on counselling (‘You just got on with it’). Painfully and memorably, the new dictionary also records quotes that have returned to haunt the sayer including Jonathan Aitken on justice (‘…a fight to cut out the bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth’), Michael Fish on hurricanes the night before the Great Storm of 1987 (‘a woman rang to say she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well don’t worry, there isn’t’), and Lord Charteris on the Duchess of York - (‘a vulgarian’).
Margaret Thatcher (‘Home is where you come to when you have nothing better to do’) still leads the race for most quotable recent Prime Minster with 17 quotes to her credit, but Tony Blair (‘the art of leadership is saying no, not yes’) - with nine quotes after just a few years - is hot on her heels, one ahead of Harold Wilson (and eight ahead of William Hague). Trailing in the distance is Edward Heath and James Callaghan with four quotes each, and John Major with three.
The book represents the best lines from a wide range of industries. Leading the pop and rock world, the most quotable stars includes Sinead O’Connor, Noel Gallagher (‘Has God played Knebworth’), Bob Geldof, David Bowie (‘I love Eastenders; it’s the next best thing to Chekhov.’), Michael Jackson, Bono, Bob Marley, Boy George, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Sting and Madonna. From the media world John Humphreys, Will Hutton, Brian Hanrahan, Michael Buerk, Anna Ford, Julie Burchill, Jeremy Paxman (If there is a message I want to be off it’), Kelvin MacKenzieB Richard IngramsB and Piers Morgan (‘I once put ‘exclusive’ on the weather by mistake’) emerge as the most quotable luminaries.