272 Quotes by Quentin Crisp

It’s been agony but I couldn’t have done it any other way.

It is no longer possible to be exotic.

It was not so much that I longed for death as that I didn’t long for life.

I played all games seriously, even nastily. They provided me an enclosed world whose triumphs compensated me somewhat for a life of defeat elsewhere.

If there were no applause and no criticism, who would you be?

You fall out of your mother’s womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave.

Zealots are totally incapable of any emotion other than rage. It is an unalterable law that people who claim to care about the human race are utterly indifferent to the sufferings of individuals.

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically – for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist – but then what isn t?

It’s no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying, ‘Really, I was meant to be a ballet dancer.’ By then, pigs will be your style.