Derek Jarman Quotes

• Violet has the shortest wavelength of the spectrum. Behind it, the invisible ultraviolet. Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. Poor violet, violated for a rhyme.

  Derek Jarman

  Blue, Rose, Wavelength

  59 Copy quote

• Understand that sexuality is as wide as the sea. Understand that your morality is not law. Understand that we are you. Understand that if we decide to have sex whether safe, safer, or unsafe, it is our decision and you have no rights in our lovemaking.

  Derek Jarman

  Sex, Gay, Rights

  Derek Jarman (2010). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  57 Copy quote

• Red protects itself. No colour is as territorial. It stakes a claim, is on the alert against the spectrum.

  Derek Jarman

  Red, Claims, Stakes

  24 Copy quote

• I'm not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying. Pain can be alleviated by morphine but the pain of social ostracism cannot be taken away.

  Derek Jarman

  Death, Pain, Taken

  Derek Jarman (2010). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  97 Copy quote

• People say to me, "You make fantastic films" and I say, "No, I make documentaries.

  Derek Jarman

  People, Documentaries, Film

  12 Copy quote

• Understand that sexuality is as wide as the sea.

  Derek Jarman

  Sea, Lgbt Pride, Lgbt Community

  Derek Jarman (2010). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  10 Copy quote

• All men are homosexual, some turn straight. It must be very odd to be a straight man because your sexuality is hopelessly defensive. It's like an ideal of racial purity.

  Derek Jarman

  Men, Hopeless, Odd

  Derek Jarman (2010). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  17 Copy quote

• One of the joys our technological civilization has lost is the excitement with which seasonal flowers and fruits were welcomed; the first daffodil, strawberry or cherry are now things of the past, along with their precious moment of arrival. Even the tangerine -- now a satsuma or clementine -- appears de-pipped months before Christmas.

  Derek Jarman

  Flower, Past, Civilization

  19 Copy quote

• On December 22, 1986, finding I was body positive, I set myself a target: I would disclose my secret and survive Margaret Thatcher. I did. Now I have set my sights on the millennium and a world where we are all equal.

  Derek Jarman

  Sight, Secret, Target

  "At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament". Book by Derek Jarman, 1992.

  15 Copy quote

• Oh how Shakespeare would have loved cinema!

  Derek Jarman

  Cinema

  14 Copy quote

• I want the world to be filled with white fluffy duckies

  Derek Jarman

  White, World, Want

  "Trivia/ Biography". Last words, www.imdb.com. 1994.

  12 Copy quote

• The Last Of England works with image and sound, a language which is nearer to poetry than prose. It tells its story quite happily in silent images, in contrast to a word-bound cinema.

  Derek Jarman

  Sound, Cinema, Stories

  19 Copy quote

• Indian yellow, banned. Cows were poisoned with mango leaves and the colour was made from their urine. It is the bright yellow in Indian miniatures. Although yellow occupies one-twentieth of the spectrum, it is the brightest colour.

  Derek Jarman

  Yellow, Cows, Made

  11 Copy quote

• I wouldn't wish the eighties on anyone, it was the time when all that was rotten bubbled to the surface. If you were not at the receiving end of this mayhem you could be unaware of it.

  Derek Jarman

  Wish, Receiving, Rotten

  Derek Jarman (1993). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  9 Copy quote

• The slow-witted approach to the HIV epidemic was the result of a thousand years of Christian malpractice and the childlike approach of the church to sexuality. If any single man was responsible, it was Augustine of Hippo who murdered his way to sainthood spouting on about the sins located in his genitals.

  Derek Jarman

  Christian, Men, Epidemics

  Derek Jarman (1993). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  17 Copy quote

• Painters used red like spice

  Derek Jarman

  Color, Spices, Red

  Derek Jarman (2017). “Chroma: A Book of Colour - June '93”, p.33, Random House

  5 Copy quote

• If Gucci handbags were still in fashion Greenaway would carry his scripts in them.

  Derek Jarman

  Fashion, Handbags, Scripts

  12 Copy quote

• The queers of the sixties, like those since, have connived with their repression under a veneer of respectability. Good mannered city queens in suits and pinstripes, so busy establishing themselves, were useless at changing anything.

  Derek Jarman

  Queens, Cities, Good Man

  Derek Jarman (2010). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  9 Copy quote

• I'm not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying.

  Derek Jarman

  Dying, Ostracism, Morphine

  Derek Jarman (2010). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  12 Copy quote

• I wouldn't wish the eighties on anyone, it was the time when all that was rotten bubbled to the surface. If you were not at the receiving end of this mayhem you could be unaware of it. It was possible to live through the decade preoccupied by the mortgage and the pence you saved on your income tax. It was also possible for those of us who saw what was happening to turn our eyes in a different direction; but what, in another decade, had been a trip to the clap clinic was now a trip to the mortuary.

  Derek Jarman

  Eye, Wish, Receiving

  Derek Jarman (1993). “At Your Own Risk: A Saint's Testament”

  4 Copy quote

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