James Herbert Quotes

I've had tweets questioning whether I really did go to university because surely I would have lost my accent if I did; a letter suggesting, very politely, that I get correction therapy; and an email saying I should get back to my council estate and leave the serious work to the clever folk.

It really is disgusting when a guy in a ball cap with a high school education is the one asking the tough questions.

I think clever people think that poor people are stupid.

It's a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn't support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, 'Well, yeah,' but you start to think, 'Why not, though?' What makes one more valuable than another?

People with accents exist and just because they have an accent doesn't mean they're less intelligent or what-have-you.

Most people were annoyed with my voice, I think, because I'm working-class, and that doesn't sound quite right on Radio 4.

A lot of writers come from Harvard and such, and are rich, and they write under the misapprehension that poor people are stupid. So when they do write them, they are hillbillies or rednecks or Christian idiots.

I've had to spend an awful lot of my life trying to pretend I'm not posh. Although once I open my mouth, I rather let things out the bag.

The education that you give to the upper classes will not uproot idolatry and prejudice, for it is amongst the masses that the error and prejudice will always maintain their power, and while you do not uproot those prejudices from the hearts of the masses, a handful of educated Hindus will never be able successfully to reform the country.

The typical white intellectual considers himself superior to ordinary white people for two contradictory reasons: a) he constantly proclaims belief in human equality, but they don't ; b) he has a high IQ, but they don't.

Doesn't make any difference who we are or what we are, there's always somebody to look down on.

I've been misconstrued because I speak in a certain way. I find it obnoxious how it defines you, somehow limits your ability to understand the human condition. You can't be allowed near emotions; you play these curling-lipped, haughty characters. This awful label - 'the posh Toby Stephens' - I'm not posh!

As a British Muslim, I am no stranger to prejudice. I know what it's like to be discriminated against just because of your background or religion.

Why do elites hate the poor? It's xenophobia. They don't know any poor people - except their off-the-books Brazilian nanny and illegal immigrant cleaning lady from Upper Revolta who don't speak English.

The one thing that no Anglo-Saxon can stand is to be ruled by someone who 'talks fancy' by using Latinate words too often.

I feel, in our culture, the girl with any sort of power is called 'difficult' or various words that are demeaning just because she has a voice, has confidence, and stands for her rights. It is sad, but it is the truth of our country.

I've been called worse than a Harvard kid.

I was going to go to a Gathering of the Juggalos but decided that wouldn't work. They would know I was there to make fun of them. It would be like me going to a Trump rally.

With any sort of minority, issues of ostracization or misrepresentation are clearly rampant. It's just so deeply rooted in our culture, and there are so many levels that it trickles down from.

I used to live in a street in Bristol which was, depending on your tabloid of choice, either Britain's most dangerous street or a moral cesspit. People made judgments about me on where I lived. It affected me - it affected my life chances. That is going on today with people in social housing. That, to me, isn't acceptable.

Despite being a business journalist at the BBC for ten years, working behind the scenes on our high-profile news programmes, I was viewed by some in the organisation to be 'too common for telly.'

I went home every night wondering how to get in the Burnley team. It was, 'You've been brought up nicely, had everything handed to you.' Is that what people think just because I went to private school and played instruments?

In the past when I was on protests, it was always people shouting out of the cars, 'get a job, get a bath, get a haircut.' So, am I a dole-scrounging hippie, or am I middle class and privileged? Just by stepping forward, somehow you become scrutinized, rather than the actual issues that count.

Discounting the ineffably repetitive homophobic barbs that I receive most days, Twitter trolls' most common gripe against me appears to be that I am 'posh.' Contrary to their unshakeable view, I was not born into the upstairs world.

I don't want to be elitist.