Mervyn Peake

“Are you lishening, my pretty vermin, are you lishening?”

— Mervyn Peake

Yet not with all of me am I in love. Too much of my own quietness is with me.

— Mervyn Peake

“It was not often that Flay approved of happiness in others.”

— Mervyn Peake

For death is life. It is only living that is lifeless.

— Mervyn Peake

“It is my cape of good hope, and if it isn't I will probably bite your nose off”

— Mervyn Peake

Why break the heart that never beat from love?

— Mervyn Peake

I am too rich already, for my eyes mint gold. - Coloured Money

— Mervyn Peake

“But haven't all ambitious people something of the monstrous about them? You, sir, for instance, if you will forgive me, are a…

— Mervyn Peake

It was not certain what significance the ceremony held... but the formality was no less sacred for it being unintelligible

— Mervyn Peake

And there shall be a flame-green daybreak soon. And love itself will cry for insurrection! For tomorrow is also a day -…

— Mervyn Peake

There is a brotherhood among the kindly- Closer and defter and more integral- Than any of aisle or coven- For love rang…

— Mervyn Peake

“He could now inhabit the world of words, with, at the back of his melancholy, a solace he had not known before”

— Mervyn Peake

There are times when the air that floats between mortals becomes, in its stillness and silence, as cruel as the edge of…

— Mervyn Peake

Each day I live in a glass room unless I break it with the thrusting of my senses and pass through the…

— Mervyn Peake

“He does not listen for an answer, but yawns, his face opening lewdly upon regions compared with which nudity becomes a milliner's…

— Mervyn Peake

“The vastest things are those we may not learn. We are not taught to die, nor to be born, Nor how to…

— Mervyn Peake

“But his mind saw nothing of all this. His mind was engaged in a warfare of the gods. His mind paced outwards…

— Mervyn Peake

“Before it had awoke to die on the instant of its waking, a score of bells and clocks had shouted midday and…

— Mervyn Peake

“Yet here apparently on this stifling summer afternoon was the eye of Mr. Flay at the outer keyhole of the Hall of…

— Mervyn Peake

“It was not often that Flay approved of happiness in others. He saw in happiness the seeds of independence, and in independence…

— Mervyn Peake

And now, my poor old woman, why are you crying so bitterly? It is autumn. The leaves are falling from the trees…

— Mervyn Peake

[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception…

— Mervyn Peake

The sun sank with a sob and darkness waded in from all horizons so that the sky contracted and there was no…

— Mervyn Peake

“Of Swelter's acreage, only a perch or two here and there might, if broken, prove vulnerable loam. That he bled profusely could…

— Mervyn Peake

“To say that the frozen silence contracted itself into a yet higher globe of ice were to under-rate the exquisite tension and…

— Mervyn Peake

“...another comber of far pleasure followed the first, for his books came suddenly before his eyes, row upon row of volumes, row…

— Mervyn Peake

“But there were also times when she cried out in the darkness biting her lips - cried out against the substance of…

— Mervyn Peake

“And a ton came down on a coloured road, And a ton came down on a gaol, And a ton came down…

— Mervyn Peake

“Irma, my dear sister,' said Prunesquallor, 'I have two things to say. Firstly, why in the name of discomfort are we hanging…

— Mervyn Peake

“Directly Mr Pye stepped ashore he heard her voice. 'The name is Dredger,' it said. Mr Pye lifted his head again, his…

— Mervyn Peake

“The crags of the mountain were ruthless in the moon; cold, deadly and shining. Distance had no meaning. The tangled glittering of…

— Mervyn Peake

“If seeing her an hour before her last Weak cough into all blackness I could yet Be held by chalk-white walls -…

— Mervyn Peake

“Meanwhile Bellgrove had been savouring love's rare aperitif, the ageless language of the eyes.”

— Mervyn Peake

He saw in happiness the seeds of independence, and in independence the seeds of revolt.

— Mervyn Peake

“For answer Mr Flay shot his head forward out of his collar and croaked, ‘Silence! you kitchen thing. Hold your tongue you…

— Mervyn Peake

“He had emptied the bright goblet of romance; at a single gulp he had emptied it. The glass of it lay scattered…

— Mervyn Peake

“His voice is unmuffled - it is like a bell, clearly ringing in the night of our confusion; but the clarity is…

— Mervyn Peake

“She had shown him by her independence how it was only fear that held people together. The fear of being alone and…

— Mervyn Peake

Years on end, and swords on end - where will it end, if our ears unbend - what shall I spend on…

— Mervyn Peake

“Keda,' she said to herself,' Keda, this is tragedy.' But as her words hung emptily in the morning air, she clenched her…

— Mervyn Peake