Steven Knight Quotes

There is a process of social and of political differentiation going on in the real working class all the time.

It is, of course, the first recourse of every elitist to see social barbarism in others.

The old world of England was picturesque and safe in a way that L.A. wasn't, but it was so amazingly socially cruel. I had never experienced that in America - never in school, nowhere.

You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs except in England, of course.

Yeah, it is particularly upsetting to be called, whatever it was, sneery, or a snob, given the background I have.

High school wasn't so bad though because, by then, I had worked out that there were far more nerdy kids and poor kids than there were rich, popular kids, so, at the very least, we had them outnumbered.

The earliest phase of social formations found in historical as well as in contemporary social structures is this: a relatively small circle firmly closed against neighboring, strange, or in some way antagonistic circles.

I had been in a film, playing a young British aristocrat. My wife told me that she was invited to a dinner and she invited me to dinner and the hostess had seen me and said, 'You cannot bring him.' but I think that I've done enough to shatter the image.

And understand: class differences will not save you.

Whether you like the look or not, that tailcoat is a tough shell, a suit of armour. The posh boy is a hardy species.

We live in a niche world.

Is class snobbery a social reality in the United States? Absolutely, and the kind that's codified by meritocracy is probably more toxic than the old-fashioned kind based on bloodlines.

Candidates don't want to be associated with poor people, people who have jobs or are ugly; they want to be associated with a certain middle class demographic, so as a result they leave those others out completely.

I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia.

I cannot believe there is caste system in society; I cannot believe people are judged on the basis of their prosperity.

I don't believe in social equality, and they know it.

All the people I know have been conditioned by snobbery.

At various points, I've had a massive chip on me shoulder. I had fights about me accent with loads of those fellers you get from third-class public schools. They used to think I was speaking German.

I don't like a class system. I don't like the idea of being in a different class than other people.

And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.

Senators will associate only with men of their own class; and thus become strangers to the condition of the common people.

The lower middle classes as well as the peasants, … always side with the strongest

‘The laboring poor’ is a detestable, canting phrase.

... more snobbish than their English butlers.

… an army of Gatsbys wanting not to overturn the social order but only to belong to the upper crust.