Cyril Connolly

A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.

As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.

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.

When we have ceased to love the stench of the human animal, either in others or in ourselves, then are we condemned to misery, and clear thinking can begin.

Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.