Zen, on the other hand, is not so dogmatically sterile, though there are certainly traces and more than traces of this austerity. However, with Zen we have not only the void, but the fertile void. The ink lines in a… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I don't know if Britain ever really achieved that much glamour. We had post-war austerity rather than post-war prosperity, and our cultural products of the time include some pretty dour kitchen-sink dramas of the A Kind of Loving variety. (This… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I have a sense of them being Easter religions, for some reason. Christianity, of course, is a mystery religion, too, and I believe that… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
If we do want to do that [ colonise space to survive, ], then vacuous materialism is not going to be enough for us. — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
I seemed to recall some words from an old Zen master, something like, "My Zen cuts down mountains." My rejection of Buddhism was a… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
This is the strange thing about existing in time. As [Philip] Larkin puts it, "truly, though our element is time, we are not used… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
It would be hard to say that exactly, but antinatalism is a reality in my life, not just an interesting idea. I can feel… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
[william] Burroughs, incidentally, took up the slogan that we are "Here to go", which contradicts the tendency in Eastern mysticism to advocate staying where… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
As children in the seventies we were told about nebulous 'strangers'. By definition, we didn't know who these strangers were, and we didn't know… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
This is part of the fundamental character of Buddhism that I find problematic - that it is not interested in anything. Hence the 'Fascination'… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
I also remember a line from a song by Smog [Bill Callahan], which seems to describe the experience of a town-dweller moving to the… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
This strong sense of who I am that I've always had, since I was very young, is what makes me write. — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
I like the concept of an anti-muse, though I'm not quite sure what that is. If there is such a thing in my life,… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
I really think [William] Burroughs was onto something here, when he said, "Dreams are a biologic necessity and your lifeline into space." — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
[My muse] is, in fact, a woman of the world, and precisely because of this, hopes that a diversity of cultures will endure, and… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
I do have a muse. I am not sure how to describe her. She can be very elusive. She was born in England but… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share
