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Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner Quotes

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Famous Sylvia Townsend Warner Quotes

“When other helpers fail and comforts flee, when the senses decay and the mind moves in a narrower and narrower circle, when the grasshopper is a burden and the postman brings no letters, and even the Royal Family is no longer quite what it was, an obituary column stands fast.”

MindMovingFailingComfortLettersBurdenCirclesSensesDecayRoyalColumnsRoyal FamilyHelpersObituaryPostmanGrasshoppers
Book:Selected stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner
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“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
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“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
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“... 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
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