272 Quotes by Quentin Crisp

The court was not previously aware of the prisoner’s many accomplishments. In view of these, we see fit to impose the death penalty.

A gentleman doesn’t pounce he glides. If a woman sits on a piece of furniture which permits your sitting beside her, you are free to regard this as an invitation, though not an unequivocal one.

The poverty from which I have suffered could be diagnosed as ‘Soho’ poverty. It comes from having the airs and graces of a genius and no talent.

Other-cheekism is not only a way of purifying the soul, it is also part of every weak person’s survival kit.

I recommend limiting one’s involvement in other people’s lives to a pleasantly scant minimum. This may seem too stoical a position in these madly passionate times, but madly passionate people rarely make good on their madly passionate promises.

Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone – but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.

You first have to find who you are. Then, you have to be it like mad.

Whatever has gone on in the outer world has passed me by. But I think if anyone said to me, ‘if you go on like this life will pass you by,’ I would reply, ’thank God for that, I nearly got mixed up in the beastly thing.

I don’t have any pets. I’ve got enough dumb friends without them.