Quotessence
Home / Authors / Sylvia Townsend Warner
Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsChildrenEyeLettersTwoWishYoungCatFall

Famous Sylvia Townsend Warner Quotes

“There is a period in one's life - perhaps not longer than six months - when one lives in two worlds at once ... It is the time when one has freshly learned to read. The Word, till then a denominating aspect of the Thing, has suddenly become detached from it and is perceived as a glittering entity, transparent and unseizable as a jellyfish, yet able to create an independent world that is both more recondite and more instantaneously convincing than the world one knew before.”

WorldTwoAbleReadingMonthsPeriodsSixAspectIndependentEntitySix MonthsConvincingTransparentDetachedTwo WorldsJellyfish
Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“about ten days ago I got started on a new book, and am completely, brazenly devoted to it: my hair is uncut, my letters are unwritten, the house is a shambles, and I sit here as happy as Mrs. Jellaby, though I am in 1836, not Africa. It won't go on like this, I shall fall over some obstacle, and wake out of my dreams with a black eye and broken shins: but while it does last, I daren't interrupt it. I haven't had such a spell of writing for nearly three years.”

WritingYearsDoeBookDreamEyeLastsFallThreeHouseBlackHavensHairBrokenGoes OnTenLettersObstaclesSpellsThree YearsDevotedNew BooksUnwrittenBlack EyesShambles
Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“A story demanded to be written, and that is why I have not answered your letter before: a wrong-headed story, that would come blundering like a moth on my window, and stare in with small red eyes, and I the last writer in the world to manage such a subject. One should have more self-control. One should be able to say, Go away. You have come to the wrong inkstand, there is nothing for you here. But I am so weakminded that I cannot even say, Come next week.”

WorldShouldSelfStoriesEyeAbleLastsNextWrittenWeekSubjectsRedWindowLettersShould HaveManageStaringGoing AwaySelf ControlNext WeekMothsRed Eye
Book:Letters
Create image

“... the advantages of being a postman seemed more and more dubious. It is not a congenial profession for anyone who is at all sensitive, for people visit upon the postman all their first annoyance at receiving a couple of bills when they looked for a love-letter, and if a packet is insufficiently stamped they hand over the pennies as though to a despicable bandit, too outrageous to be denied, too groveling to be feared.”

PeopleIfsFirstsHandsCoupleAdvantageLettersBillsProfessionSensitiveDeniedReceivingPenniesOutrageousDespicableLove LetterDubiousAnnoyanceBanditsPostmanGroveling
Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“Rouen shone in dark sunlight and a storm swept it away from my eyes and churned up the broad river with waves which pounced up like cats as our train drew out of the arches of the bridge.”

EyeDarkRiversCatTrainWaveStormBridgesBroadsSunlightArches
Book:I'll stand by you: selected letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland : with narrative by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“Theology, Mr. Fortune found, is a more accommodating subject than mathematics; its technique of exposition allows greater latitude. For instance when you are gravelled for matter there is always the moral to fall back upon. Comparisons too may be drawn, leading cases cited, types and antetypes analysed and anecdotes introduced. Except for Archimedes mathematics is singularly naked of anecdotes.”

MayMatterFallFoundLeadershipMoralCasesGreaterSubjectsTypeMathematicsFortuneMathTechniqueTheologyNakedInstanceMathematicalComparisonFall BackAnecdotesLatitude
Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“London life was very full and exciting [...] But in London there would be no greenhouse with a glossy tank, and no apple-room, and no potting-shed, earthy and warm, with bunches of poppy heads hanging from the ceiling, and sunflower seeds in a wooden box, and bulbs in thick paper bags, and hanks of tarred string, and lavender drying on a tea-tray.”

Would BeRoomsPaperExcitingBoxesWarmSeedsLondonBunchTeaApplesBagsStringsThickShedTanksCeilingsGreenhousesBulbsPoppiesSunflowerLavenderTraysPaper Bags
Book:Lolly Willowes: or, The loving huntsman
Create image

“I wish you could see the two cats drowsing side by side in a Victorian nursing chair, their paws, their ears, their tails complementarily adjusted, their blue eyes blinking open on a single thought of when I shall remember it's their supper time. They might have been composed by Bach for two flutes.”

Has BeensTwoMightEyeRememberWishSidesCatEarsBlueChairsTailsMight Have BeenNursingWish YouBlue EyesVictorianSupperPawsFlutesSupper Time
Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner
Create image

“The night was at her disposal. She might walk back to Great Mop and arrive very late; or she might sleep out and not trouble to arrive till to-morrow. Whichever she did Mrs Leak would not mind. That was one of the advantages of dealing with witches; they do not mind if you are a little odd in your ways, frown if you are late for meals, fret if you are out all night, pry and commiserate when at length you return. Lovely to be with people who prefer their thoughts to yours, lovely to live at your own sweet will, lovely to sleep out all night!”

PeopleIfsWayLoveMindLittlesMightAgeNightSleepWalksTroubleSweetReturnLateAdvantageLovelyOddMealsLengthWitchAll NightMorrowLeaks
Book:Lolly Willowes: or, The loving huntsman
Create image