“I seem to be less depressed but also less hopeful now in my thirties. My widow's peak bothers me. I think a lot about the end of the human race. And so on.” ThinkingHumansEndsSeemsRaceBotherHuman RaceHopefulWidows Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“I don't know if Britain ever really achieved that much glamour. We had post-war austerity rather than post-war prosperity, and our cultural products of the time include some pretty dour kitchen-sink dramas of the A Kind of Loving variety. (This kind of film seems disillusioned with the sixties before they've even really begun.)” IfsKnowsKindWarSeemsFilmProductsDramaProsperityVarietyPostsKitchenBritainSixtyGlamourDisillusionedAusterityPost WarKitchen Sinks Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“I also remember a line from a song by Smog [Bill Callahan], which seems to describe the experience of a town-dweller moving to the country: "I was raised in a pit of snakes/Blink your eyes - I was raised on cake."” CountrySeemsEyeRememberMovingSongLinesTownsBillsRaisedCakeSnakesPitsBlinkDwellersSmog Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“Non-pantheist models for god seem almost completely untenable to me, though not without interest.” SeemsInterestModels Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“What I find difficult about Buddhism, though it is also one of its significant fascinations, is the focus on what is immediately and physically present. To me, this seems a denial of the imagination, and the imagination is very important to me.” ImportantSeemsDifficultImaginationFocusBuddhismSignificantDenialFascination Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“The peculiar thing is that, in focusing only on the here and now, Buddhism seems to despise the world.” WorldSeemsBuddhismPeculiarDespiseHere And Now Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“If future history is not to be just one damned thing after another in space, then what we really have to do is in some way overcome this linear experience of time that makes all existence a quest for something that will never be found.And philosophies such as Zen seem to hint that this is possible.” IfsWayPhilosophySeemsFoundSpaceExistenceOvercomingJust OneQuestsHintsLinear Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“If we do overcome linear time, I would hope this means dwelling more directly in the fertility of the imagination rather than denying it, as some aspects of Buddhism seem to.” IfsMeanSeemsImaginationBuddhismAspectOvercomingDwellingLinearFertilityLinear Time Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“Some Buddhists, however, never seem to get past the void, and I suppose I view this as a kind of Buddhist 'Old Testament' that I don't especially like.” KindSeemsPastViewsBuddhistVoidTestamentOld Testament Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“Apart from the underlying mystery of all things, there is also another possible specific mystery in this situation: Why did I become so interested in Buddhism, Zen and so on? I seem to have a Buddhist voice in my head, and someone asked me about this recently, saying he was intrigued.” SeemsVoiceSituationMysteryBuddhismAll ThingsBuddhistIntriguedVoices In My Head Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“Nonetheless, I'm not sure this entirely accounts for my Buddhist voice, which tells me forever to give up writing, to give up on relationships, simply to give up. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to me to be the voice of innocence.” GivingWritingSeemsVoiceForeverGiving UpAccountsBuddhistInnocenceNot Sure Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“Anyway, to cut off one's biological dreams seems to me the most fundamental form of psychic castration that you could imagine.” DreamSeemsFormCuttingImagineFundamentalsPsychicsCastration Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“Western progress (from one damned thing to another) seems to be essentially the MO of nowhere fast. But, on the other hand, the don't-set-foot-outside-your-own-village/cave ideal or injunction that you find in Buddhism and even in the Daoism of which I'm fonder, seems . . . defeatist. And more than that, it is in contradiction to what nature actually does. Somewhere, somehow, I feel as if these two opposing principles have to be reconciled.” IfsFeelsDoeTwoHandsSeemsPrinciplesProgressFeetBuddhismIdealsWesternContradictionVillageCavesOpposing Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“[Antinatalism ] seems to oppose the idea of writing anything at all. To reproduce is to pass on genes. To write is to pass on memes. In that sense, it really is a kind of reproduction, which antinatalism should, theoretically, oppose, or at least which I feel that it opposes emotionally in my own experience.” FeelsShouldWritingKindIdeasSeemsMy OwnGenesReproductionMemes Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“I'm constantly struggling with the futility and even sinfulness, from an antinatalist point of view, of creativity. And that struggle itself seems part of the creativity, though I sometimes suspect that it's nothing but a burden and an obstacle.” SometimesSeemsViewsCreativityStruggleBurdenObstaclesPoint Of ViewSuspectsFutilitySinfulness Author:Quentin S. Crisp
“I never seem to find what I'm looking for, though. I suppose I feel, these days, too aware of schedules and things, to let myself get lost in the rain. Anyway, I came back home, and it was still raining, and as I was approaching the driveway of the house, and the front garden with its bushy flower bed, I caught a cooking smell from somewhere on the air. I don't know why, exactly, but it appealed to me as a Nagai Kafu moment.” KnowsFeelsStillsMomentsHomeSeemsHouseLostAirFrontsFlowerBedRainGardenCookingCaughtSmellThese DaysSchedulesBack HomeDriveway Author:Quentin S. Crisp
