Quentin Crisp

"People who are lonely are those who do not know what to do with the time when they are alone."

Quentin Crisp

Family and Loneliness

Time and Passing

"There are three reasons for becoming a writer. The first is that you need the money; the second, that you have something to say that you think the world should know; and the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings."

Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant"

Art and Culture

"The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right."

Quentin Crisp

Happiness

History and Nations

"To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody."

Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant"

Forgiveness

"If you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be a romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be thought of as a satirist."

Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant"

Reality and Imagination

Wit and Humor

"Nothing more rapidly inclines a person to go into a monastery than reading a book on etiquette. There are so many trivial ways in which it is possible to commit some social sin."

Quentin Crisp "Manners from Heaven"

Manners and Ethics

"Manners are love in a cool climate."

Quentin Crisp "Manners from Heaven"

Love

Manners and Ethics

"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."

Quentin Crisp

Defeates and Mistakes

"Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbours."

Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant"

Health and Alcohol

"I never understood music. It seemed to me to be the maximum amount of noise conveying the minimum amount of information."

Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant"

Art and Culture

"Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave."

Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant"

Life and Death