Young writers if they are to mature require a period of between three and seven years in which to live down their promise. Promise is like the mediaeval hangman who after settling the noose, pushed his victim off the platform… — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
A stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among… — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once. — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
Beautiful women must think about their beauty as capitalists think about their investments or politicians about their majorities; it is all they have to… — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
We cannot be happy until we can love ourselves without egotism and our friends without tyranny. — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine? — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.” — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
“Our memories are card-indexes consulted and then put back in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.” — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
Were I to deduce any system from my feelings on leaving Eton, it might be called The Theory of Permanent Adolescence. It is the… — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
Failure on the other hand is infectious. The world is full of charming failures (for all charming people have something to conceal, usually their… — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
There is no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence. — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
