Gavin Esler Quotes

Now you may write the eulogy for my funeral.

On the fortieth day after his death, we held the ceremony, and I performed for the very first time.

I love eulogies. They are the most moving kind of speech because they attempt to pluck meaning from the fog, and on short order, when the emotions are still ragged and raw and susceptible to leaps.

Eulogy is nice, but one does not learn anything from it.

Memorial Service: Farewell party for someone who already left.

A funeral eulogy is a belated plea for the defense delivered after the evidence is all in.

to participate in the funeral rights for tyranny.

The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

Mourn for me rather as living than as dead.

The French, perhaps more than any other nation, cherish the memory of their dead by ornamenting their places of sepulture with the finest flowers, often renewing the garlands and replacing such plants as decay with vigorous and costly ones.

An obituary should be an exercise in contemporary history, not a funeral oration.

I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it.

Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.

I never go to funerals. To me a person is dead when he breathes for the last time. After that, your memories should be personal.

I know you aren't supposed to speak ill of the dead.

A funeral was a great form of entertainment. A wake was a great form of entertainment.

I will miss my pal Dominick Dunne. I am sure his funeral will be just the sort of event he would have loved. Based on who will be there, I am sure he wishes he could have been there to cover it.

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.

I had a relationship with John Wooden. I spoke at his memorial service.

To us who remain behind is left this day of memories. Every year--in the full tide of spring, at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life--there comes a pause, and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death.

I want the people I love to get up and speak about me, and even if you cry it'll be OK. I want you to say honest things.

When John Coltrane passed, we were in the church for the memorial. Albert Ayler came walking in playing, real out there. He was actually mourning through his horn. Mourning, but it was also like a call to wake up. Wake up!

Beyond being timely, an obituary has a more subjective duty: to assess its subject's impact.

I do my best to make every word from my pen a cry from the heart for the souls of the dead.

I think it's very important to allow people into Ted Kennedy. Thousands of people lined the streets the day of his funeral.