Hackney Quotes

• The British are so funny. It's like they can't believe I lived in Hackney. 'You could live in Bondi Beach. Why would you want to live in 'Ackney?' But Hackney's fantastic. I'm serious. There are so many artists there. I loved the markets, the parks, the pubs, the diversity. It was a cultural melting-pot.

  Rose Byrne

  Beach, Believe, Artist

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• My London constituency in Hackney has one of the highest levels of gun crime in the country. But the problem is no longer confined to inner city areas. Gun crime has spread to communities all over Britain.

  Diane Abbott

  Country, Gun, Cities

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• As to Don Juan, confess that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a Gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis a vis? on a table? and under it?

  Lord Byron

  Life, Wall, Writing

  On 'Don Juan' in a letter to Douglas Kinnaird, October 26 1819: L. A. Marchand (ed.) 'Byron's Letters and Journals' vol. 6 (1978)

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• Hackney gets a bit of a bad rap, but it's the only place I've ever lived that felt like a community. I know my neighbours.

  Sharon Horgan

  Rap, Community, Knows

  "My East End: Sharon Horgan, actor". Interview With Kathy Sweeney, www.theguardian.com. July 7, 2012.

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• This London City, with all of its houses, palaces, steam-engines, cathedrals, and huge immeasurable traffic an tumult, what is it but a Thought, but millions of Thoughts made into One-a huge immeasurable Spirit of a Thought, embodied in brick, in iron, smoke, dust, Palaces, Parliaments, Hackney Coaches, Katherine Docks, and the rest of it! Not a brick was made but some man had to think of the making of that brick.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Men, Thinking, Iron

  Thomas Carlyle (1840). “On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History”, p.195, CUP Archive

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• I am, and always will be, proud to be a Hackney girl.

  Leona Lewis

  Girl, Proud, Be Proud

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The great thing about London is the little pockets of culture, like Hackney, which has its panto and its great community. Of course there's also the West End with its brilliant theatres and thriving tourism but to also have areas like Hackney which are so community based but not exclusive, that remind you that those surrounding you are the most important, is what makes London what it is.

  Clive Rowe

  Community, Important, Theatre

  Interview with Ryan Ormonde, www.londoncalling.com. November 21, 2015.

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• A man must serve his time to every trade, Save censure-critics all are ready made. Take hackney'd jokes from Miller, got by rote With just enough learning to misquote.

  Lord Byron

  Men, Enough, Made

  'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' (1809) l. 63

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• Yes, Hackney has got more expensive, but so has rest of London

  Meg Hillier

  London, Expensive

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• Boarding school in Tring was a bit of a bubble that burst when I went to Hackney to go to drama school.

  Lily James

  Drama, School, Bits

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• The stage I chose--a subject fair and free--
  'Tis yours--'tis mine--'tis public property.
  All common exhibitions open lie,
  For praise or censure, to the common eye.
  Hence are a thousand hackney writers fed;
  Hence monthly critics earn their daily bread.
  This is a general tax which all must pay,
  From those who scribble, down to those who play.

  Charles Churchill

  Lying, Eye, Play

  Charles Churchill, George Gilfillan (1855). “The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan”, p.43

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• To go upon the Franciscans Hackney (i.e. on foot).

  George Herbert

  Feet, Franciscans

  George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.323

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• Miss Tarabotti was not certain if he was objecting to the kick or the scream, so she issued both again— with interest. He seemed to be having a difficult time negotiating Alexia's multiple layers of skirts and ruffles, which formed a particularly efficacious barrier in the tight confines of the hackney.

  Gail Carriger

  Missing, Ruffles, Layers

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• What woeful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me! But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines!

  Alexander Pope

  Happiness, Style, Would Be

  'An Essay on Criticism' (1711) l. 418

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