I am trying to say it all in one sentence, between one cap and one period. —William Faulkner

Old Paris is no more (the form of a city Changes more quickly, alas! than the human heart) —Charles Baudelaire

One goes to bed too often wishing that there was an escape from stupid ideas on this side of the grave.

Orality, rhetoric, writing, narrative, storytelling, & the symbol are the technologies that have revolutionised the human interaction with the world more than any other. Those of us who study literature should recall that fact when asked to justify our time, effort, & interests.

Too many barriers to entry into the arts at large favour a level of cultural capital, certain kinds of social connections, and the liberty to pursue part-time, unpaid, nonpermanent, contingent work that is all extremely hard if not impossible for working-class people to access.

Favourite Alfred Hitchcock film?

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there. —Gerard Manley Hopkins

when you pray, do not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men[...] They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'Self-Portrait at an Early Age' (1628)

In this climate, in the minds of many, if you point out an unconsidered fact to someone it is read as giving them advice which is read as criticism which is read as a frontal attack on their entire intellectual, ideological, political programme.

Christians flatly telling you that the Apostle Matthew was wrong because he contradicts some random celebrity they like is wild.

Any film, even the worst, is at least better than real life. —Quentin Crisp