No collection of people who are all waiting for the same thing are capable of holding a natural conversation. Even if the thing they are waiting for is only a taxi.
Meaning of the quote
People who are all waiting for the same thing, like a taxi, can't have a normal conversation. They are so focused on what they're waiting for that they don't talk naturally with each other.
About Ben Elton
Ben Elton is a renowned British comedian, author, and playwright who was part of the alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He has written numerous successful novels and musicals, covering a range of genres from dystopian to comedy and crime.
More quotes from Ben Elton
No collection of people who are all waiting for the same thing are capable of holding a natural conversation. Even if the thing they are waiting for is only a taxi.
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People who get through life dependent on other people’s possessions are always the first to lecture you on how little possessions count.
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The earth only has so much bounty to offer and inventing ever larger and more notional prices for that bounty does not change its real value.
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I’m easy to work with, not a pushover, but I respond to criticism and find it inspiring.
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I try hard not to preach, but I get carried away, which is a mistake, but it’s a risk worth running.
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We’ve all got to look at ourselves, start with yourself, that’s all you can do. I believe that we can act responsibly as a group, it’s just that there are vested interests telling us not to bother.
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If only the strength of the love that people feel when it is reciprocated could be as intense and obsessive as the love we feel when it is not; then marriages would be truly made in heaven.
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My advice to anyone adapting a novel is that once they’ve read it and learnt to understand it, then they must throw it away and never look at it again!
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Sympathy for victims is always counter-balanced by an equal and opposite feeling of resentment towards them.
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Yes, OK, farty is a silly word. I wish I’d never used it. I’m 34. Perhaps it was a word for my 20s.
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