WIST Quotations

Crisp, Quentin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:19:45 +0000

Believe in fate, but lean forward where fate can see you.

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
(Attributed)

Crisp, Quentin -- Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behavior (1984)

Dave — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:45:36 +0000

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically — for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist — but then what isn’t?

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behavior (1984)
(Source)

Crisp, Quentin -- Manners from Heaven, ch. 6 (1984)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A gentleman doesn’t pounce … he glides.

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Manners from Heaven, ch. 6 (1984)

Crisp, Quentin -- The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 18 (1968)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 18 (1968)

Crisp, Quentin -- The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 29 (1968)

Dave — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 17:54:38 +0000

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 29 (1968)

Crisp, Quentin -- Interview with the author, in Jon Winokur, The Portable Curmudgeon (1992)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Interview with the author, in Jon Winokur, The Portable Curmudgeon (1992)