Cyril Connolly quotes - page 5

The only happy talkers are dandies who extract pleasure from the very perishability of their material and who would not be able to tolerate the isolation of all other forms of composition for most good talkers, when they have run down, are miserable they know that they have betrayed themselves, that they have taken material which should have a life of its own, to dispense it in noises upon the air. (Cyril Connolly)
When I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well. View quote
Cyril Connolly
The Mandarin style at its best yields the richest and most complete expression of the English language. View quote
Cyril Connolly
A mistake which is commonly made about neurotics is to suppose that they are interesting. View quote
Cyril Connolly
Its cardinal assumption is that neither the writer nor the reader is in a hurry, that both are possessed of a classical education and a private income. It is Ciceronian English. View quote
Cyril Connolly
Flaubert spoke true: to succeed a great artist must have both character and fanaticism and few in this country are willing to pay the price. View quote
Cyril Connolly
The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; - such is our personality. View quote
Cyril Connolly
... art is made by the alone for the alone... The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication... View quote
Cyril Connolly
The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence. View quote
Cyril Connolly
A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent. View quote
Cyril Connolly
In America every woman has her set of girl-friends some are cousins, the rest are gained at school. These form a permanent committee who sit on each other's affairs, who ''come out'' together, marry and divorce together, and who end as those groups of bustling, heartless well-informed club-women who govern society. Against them the Couple of Ehepaar is helpless and Man in their eyes but a biological interlude. (Cyril Connolly)
The shock, for an intelligent writer, of discovering for the first time that there are people younger than himself who think him stupid is severe. View quote
Cyril Connolly
Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils. View quote
Cyril Connolly