I seem to be less depressed but also less hopeful now in my thirties. My widow's peak bothers me. I think a… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I do have a muse. I am not sure how to describe her. She can be very elusive. She was born in… — Quentin S. Crisp Ancestry Copy Share Image
I'm not an expert here. I'm talking about an experience I had rather than something I intellectually worked out. From what I… — Quentin S. Crisp Experts Copy Share Image
When we fail to live up to our ideals, for instance, we might begin to wonder who we are - most people… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
She [me muse] feels most at home in autumn, nonetheless, she is glad of the other seasons and loves them all. Without… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
You focus on the here and now in order to escape existence forever and vanish into Nirvana. There is another religious impulse… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
This is part of the fundamental character of Buddhism that I find problematic - that it is not interested in anything. Hence… — Quentin S. Crisp Art Copy Share Image
I'm constantly struggling with the futility and even sinfulness, from an antinatalist point of view, of creativity. And that struggle itself seems… — Quentin S. Crisp Adversity Copy Share Image
There's a possible qualification I can make here about a non-pantheist god that is in some way tenable, and that is the… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I understand that words can mean different things to different people, and, further, that people can have different relationships with complex abstract… — Quentin S. Crisp Abstract Copy Share Image
“There can be no such thing as “philosophical horror”, at least as a premeditated genre. Why? Because philosophy implies enquiry, reflection and… — Quentin S. Crisp Horror-fiction Copy Share Image
[william] Burroughs, incidentally, took up the slogan that we are "Here to go", which contradicts the tendency in Eastern mysticism to advocate… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
This is the strange thing about existing in time. As [Philip] Larkin puts it, "truly, though our element is time, we are… — Quentin S. Crisp Elements Copy Share Image
Apart from the underlying mystery of all things, there is also another possible specific mystery in this situation: Why did I become… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I think I still have [commemorative coin ] somewhere. Why was this given to me? I think every child in the country… — Quentin S. Crisp Britain Copy Share Image
The urban, on the other hand, is often seen as more real and mundane, even though it is obviously far more recent… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
The weird thing is, I'm not entirely sure that I am meant to think that such a gift is who I am… — Quentin S. Crisp Gift Copy Share Image
“The famous atheist Christopher Hitchens once declared that ‘You’re expelled from your mother’s uterus as if shot from a cannon, towards a… — Quentin S. Crisp Atheist Copy Share Image
I also remember a line from a song by Smog [Bill Callahan], which seems to describe the experience of a town-dweller moving… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
When I think back on it, I have a sense of relaxation, as if in the seventies no one had to try… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I feel almost as if I had been born in a vacuum of innocence, and then had to come to terms with… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I feel like the seventies was a decade where things ran out, and where other things set in. There was just a… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I like the concept of an anti-muse, though I'm not quite sure what that is. If there is such a thing in… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
[Someone] said that what I described as the Buddhist voice - the life-denying voice of censure and guilt - sounded to him… — Quentin S. Crisp Buddhism Copy Share Image
I mean, in 1979 I was seven. I do remember punk, though, as a playground phenomenon, and remember that it was exciting… — Quentin S. Crisp Adventure Copy Share Image
Nonetheless, I'm not sure this entirely accounts for my Buddhist voice, which tells me forever to give up writing, to give up… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
Some people have described Daoism as pantheist, and although there's something in me that resists this designation, I can see that Daoism… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
Anyway, yes, telephones but not mobile phones, fish and chips still wrapped in actual newspaper and still with some kind of flavour,… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I don't want to give too much away, but something horrible happens in 1977. That was also the year of the Queen's… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
More or less the first thing that comes into my head is that some people are always looking for what they want… — Quentin S. Crisp Age 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… — Quentin S. Crisp Austerity Copy Share Image
I can't imagine anyone ever again being able to make a film like, say, Summer Holiday, for instance, to give a British… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I feel a little as if the Buddhism is creeping back, but I mention all this simply in order to illustrate that… — Quentin S. Crisp Buddhism Copy Share Image
If you look at the ox-herding pictures - specifically the newer set of ten pictures rather than the older set of eight… — Quentin S. Crisp Copy Share Image
I think [imagination] very austere element of Buddhism is also linked with a strong antinatalist strain in the philosophy. The Buddha was… — Quentin S. Crisp Body Copy Share Image
![“She [me muse] feels most at home in autumn, nonetheless, she is glad of the other seasons and loves them all. Without the others she would be unable to feel most at home in autumn, besides which, she almost feels most at home in all of them.” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/865/quentin-s-crisp-4149_and-love_she-me-muse-feels-most-at-home-in-autumn_1143613.jpg)
![“[william] Burroughs, incidentally, took up the slogan that we are "Here to go", which contradicts the tendency in Eastern mysticism to advocate staying where you are because there's nowhere to go anyway. I feel conflicted on this one.” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa0/quentin-s-crisp-4149_burroughs_william-burroughs-incidentally-took-up-t_122911.jpg)
![“This is the strange thing about existing in time. As [Philip] Larkin puts it, "truly, though our element is time, we are not used to the strange perspectives open at each moment of our lives" - something like that.” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/351/quentin-s-crisp-4149_elements_this-is-the-strange-thing-about-existing_83503.jpg)
![“I think I still have [commemorative coin ] somewhere. Why was this given to me? I think every child in the country must have received one [ from Queen's Silver Jubilee]. That's the last time that I recall something of an innocent, more-or-less unquestioning monarchist patriotism in Britain.” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dc9/quentin-s-crisp-4149_britain_i-think-i-still-have-commemorative-coin_1855826.jpg)
![“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 country: "I was raised in a pit of snakes/Blink your eyes - I was raised on cake."” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/950/quentin-s-crisp-4149_bills_i-also-remember-a-line-from-a-song-by-sm_299534.jpg)
![“[Someone] said that what I described as the Buddhist voice - the life-denying voice of censure and guilt - sounded to him very much like a Catholic voice. This is, indeed, a mystery, and it intrigues me, too.” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/313/quentin-s-crisp-4149_buddhism_someone-said-that-what-i-described-as-th_1945043.jpg)
![“I think [imagination] very austere element of Buddhism is also linked with a strong antinatalist strain in the philosophy. The Buddha was enlightened when he destroyed the house of body and soul into which he would otherwise have been forever reborn. This is clearly antinatalism.” quote by Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b03/quentin-s-crisp-4149_body_i-think-imagination-very-austere-element_1631590.jpg)