Toby Young Quotes

• People in London think of London as the center of the world, whereas New Yorkers think the world ends three miles outside of Manhattan.

  Toby Young

  Thinking, People, Three

  47 Copy quote

• I was once hired to write a column for 'The Guardian' and then got fired before I'd submitted my first one. That was unusual. Most newspapers wait until I've written at least one piece for them before firing me.

  Toby Young

  Writing, Waiting, Pieces

  8 Copy quote

• In Britain, by contrast, we still think that class plays a part in determining a person's life chances, so we're less inclined to celebrate success and less inclined to condemn failure. The upshot is that it's much easier to be a failure in Britain than it is in America.

  Toby Young

  Thinking, Class, Play

  8 Copy quote

• It's very different doing a food show in America and doing one in Britain. I did a 20-part series for the BBC series called 'Eating With the Enemy.' The budget for all 20 episodes was probably the budget for a single episode of 'Top Chef.' It's the difference between making a home movie in your backyard and going to Hollywood.

  Toby Young

  Home, Differences, America

  7 Copy quote

• Oddly, I do have a problem with authority. I find it very difficult to knuckle down and follow rules. Which are the classic symptoms of someone who has a troubled relationship with their father. And yet, I never had a problem with my father.

  Toby Young

  Father, Troubled Relationship, Down And

  "Forever Young". Interview With Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• I miss being fawned over by restaurateurs and chefs.

  Toby Young

  Missing, Chef

  9 Copy quote

• My life's ambition is to play a James Bond villain. I have the cat and the eye-patch, so I'm just waiting for the call. For some reason, though, the phone hasn't rung.

  Toby Young

  Ambition, Cat, Eye

  6 Copy quote

• I was every Londoner's stereotypical idea of a brash, vulgar American. When I got here, it turned out that London was the Wild West, and New York was like London at the height of the Victorian era, in which everyone was far more obsessed with table manners and status-climbing than they are in London. In London, everyone was just crawling over this blizzard of cocaine. Here, if you have more than a glass of wine with your meal, people refer you to Alcoholics Anonymous.

  Toby Young

  New York, Wine, Ideas

  Source: wwd.com

  5 Copy quote

• I think I've been wishing for celebrity for so long that I've got used to being someone who's petitioning the establishment for acceptance... my whole schtick, my whole identity, is so wrapped up in being a petitioner that I don't really know how to react now that petition has been granted.

  Toby Young

  Acceptance, Thinking, Long

  7 Copy quote

• America thinks of itself as a meritocracy, so people have more respect for success and more contempt for failure.

  Toby Young

  Thinking, America, People

  5 Copy quote

• You know when you tell a self-deprecating story at a dinner party, everyone's laughing along with you? But then when someone else repeats that same story at another dinner party you feel they're all laughing at you?

  Toby Young

  Party, Self, Laughing

  7 Copy quote

• Everyone said to me growing up, "You're like an American. You have to go to America. That's your spiritual home."

  Toby Young

  Spiritual, Growing Up, Home

  Source: wwd.com

  6 Copy quote

• I've become a professional failure - in order to pay the mortgage I have to remain unemployed. Luckily, a disaster always seems to befall me at exactly the right moment.

  Toby Young

  Order, Pay, Mortgage

  5 Copy quote

• I expect that in 40 years' time I'll be writing political tomes and working for an organisation like Oxfam.

  Toby Young

  Writing, Years, Political

  "Forever Young". Interview with Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2006.

  8 Copy quote

• I don't envy young Brits crossing the Atlantic to make their fortunes today.

  Toby Young

  Envy, Today, Fortune

  Source: wwd.com

  4 Copy quote

• I think that magazines like Vanity Fair are still operating under the old rules, and that if you come to work for a magazine like Vanity Fair, even today, you're certainly expected to treat people like Peggy Siegal very deferentially.

  Toby Young

  Thinking, Vanity, People

  Source: wwd.com

  4 Copy quote

• The moment I'm perceived to be even a tiny bit successful, my career will go down the pan.

  Toby Young

  Successful, Careers, Tiny

  4 Copy quote

• There's no reason why you can't deliver a grammar-school curriculum to an all-ability intake.

  Toby Young

  School, Curriculum, Reason Why

  "Can Toby Young's free school succeed?". Interview with Peter Wilby, www.theguardian.com. April 5, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I've never been to a shrink. But my parents were very psychologically literate - my father had undergone Freudian analysis - and we often talked about other people in psychological terms, so I picked up a lot of that.

  Toby Young

  Father, People, Parent

  "Forever Young". Interview With Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• I really like the Observer. I think I'd love to have a column with a broad reach that would enable me to do some proper reporting, but keep it on sort of a humorous level. I've always had a very happy experience writing for them.

  Toby Young

  Humorous, Writing, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• I wouldn't describe myself as a master of anything.

  Toby Young

  Masters, Owners, Describe Myself

  4 Copy quote

• Top Chef is a very smooth-running machine. All the people working there are incredibly professional and absolutely at the top of their game.

  Toby Young

  Running, Games, People

  4 Copy quote

• I tried being a mechanic and I tried catering, but I realized I had even less aptitude for semi-skilled labour than for academic work.

  Toby Young

  Academic Work, Aptitude, Mechanic

  7 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Robert B. Weide

James Delingpole

Julie Burchill

Tom Colicchio

Rod Liddle

Simon Pegg

Michael Gove

Padma Lakshmi