I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

About Christopher Hampton

Sir Christopher James Hampton is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses based on the novel of the same name and the film adaptation.

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More quotes from Christopher Hampton

You know very well that unless you’re a scientist, it’s much more important for a theory to be shapely, than for it to be true.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

I think there’s something degrading about having a husband for a rival. It’s humiliating if you fail and commonplace if you succeed.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

A great number of the disappointments and mishaps of the troubled world are the direct result of literature and the allied arts. It is our belief that no human being who devotes his life and energy to the manufacture of fantasies can be anything but fundamentally inadequate.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

To seduce a woman famous for strict morals, religious fervor and the happiness of her marriage: what could possibly be more prestigious?

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs.

Christopher Hampton

British playwright, screenwriter and film director