Quotes by James Herriot

About James Herriot:

James Alfred "Alf" Wight is best known for these semi-autobiographical works, which are often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and television adaptations.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.

James Herriot

I went back to my conversation with Siegfried that morning; we had just about decided that the man with a lot of animals couldn't be expected to feel affection for individuals among them. But those buildings back there were full of John Skipton's ani...

James Herriot

My mind went back to that picture in the obstetrics book. A cow standing in the middle of a gleaming floor while a sleek veterinary surgeon in a spotless parturition overall inserted his arm to a polite distance. He was relaxed and smiling, the farme...

James Herriot

That quotation about not having time to stand and stare has never applied to me. I seem to have spent a good part of my life - probably too much - in just standing and staring and I was at it again this morning.

James Herriot

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.

James Herriot

I am never at my best in the early morning, especially a cold morning in the Yorkshire spring with a piercing March wind sweeping down from the fells, finding its way inside my clothing, nipping at my nose and ears.

James Herriot

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs.

James Herriot

For years I used to bore my wife over lunch with stories about funny incidents.

James Herriot

I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.

James Herriot

I love writing about my job because I loved it, and it was a particularly interesting one when I was a young man. It was like holidays with pay to me.

James Herriot

I became a connoisseur of that nasty thud a manuscript makes when it comes through the letter box.

James Herriot

I could do terrible things to people who dump unwanted animals by the roadside.

James Herriot

I think it was the fact that I liked it so much that made the writing just come out of me automatically.

James Herriot

I was helped by having a verbatim memory of what happened years ago, even if I can't remember what happened a couple of days ago.

James Herriot

I will write another book if I feel like it.

James Herriot

If a farmer calls me to a sick animal, he couldn't care less if I were George Bernard Shaw.

James Herriot

There was no last animal I treated. When young farm lads started to help me over the gate into a field or a pigpen, to make sure the old fellow wouldn't fall, I started to consider retiring.

James Herriot

They can't find my house now because I keep it very quiet where I live.

James Herriot

And the peace which I always found in the silence and emptiness of the moors filled me utterly

James Herriot

I wish people would realize that animals are totally dependent on us, helpless, like children, a trust that is put upon us.

James Herriot

Author Bio

  • NameJames Herriot
  • Descriptionveterinary surgeon and writer
  • AliasesJames Alfred "Alf" Wight
  • BornOctober 3, 1916
  • DiedFebruary 23, 1995
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Veterinarian; Autobiographer
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Order Of The British Empire