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Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically - for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist - but then what isn't?

Quentin Crisp

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Quentin Crisp
Age: 90 †
Born: 1908
Born: December 25
Died: 1999
Died: November 21
Actor
Autobiographer
Film Actor
Graphic Designer
Model
Socialite
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Writer
Sutton
London
Daniel Pratt
Denis Charles Pratt
People
Seem
Building
Mildly
Courses
Moralist
Course
Shocking
Lying
Mutual
Seems
Manners
May
Block
Good
Basic

More quotes by Quentin Crisp

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One should always be wary of anyone who promises that their love will last longer than a weekend.
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I recommend limiting one's involvement in other people's lives to a pleasantly scant minimum.
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You will survive if you believe in yourself.
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The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.
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It's no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying, 'Really, I was meant to be a ballet dancer.' By then, pigs will be your style.
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Every day someone notices me and waves to me, or stops and speaks to me, or asks me for an autograph, or photographs me.
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I had a friend who had two degrees of being made up: when invited I would say 'Can I make up?' and he would say 'Oh yes - tinted?', or he would say, 'Oh yes - clotted?'
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Whenever we confront an unbridled desire we are surely in the presence of a tragedy-in-the-making.
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Nearly always when actors are approached by the beauticians, they try to avoid the dabs that the beauticians put on their faces. They dodge them.
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If I were God - and I never understand why I'm not - I should say, Shop around, I don't think you'll find a better bargain than here.
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I recommend limiting one's involvement in other people's lives to a pleasantly scant minimum. This may seem too stoical a position in these madly passionate times, but madly passionate people rarely make good on their madly passionate promises.
Quentin Crisp
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Masturbation is not only an expression of self-regard: it is also the natural emotional outlet of those who...have already accepted as inevitable the wide gulf between their real futures and the expectations of their fantasies.
Quentin Crisp
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I don't believe in convention at all. I do what I have to do to stay alive.
Quentin Crisp
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The court was not previously aware of the prisoner's many accomplishments. In view of these, we see fit to impose the death penalty.
Quentin Crisp
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Manners are a way of getting what you want without appearing to be an absolute swine.
Quentin Crisp
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When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?'
Quentin Crisp
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To say a thing is natural is to condone it, never to praise it.
Quentin Crisp
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Los Angeles is just New York lying down.
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I can't remember ever having a tragic demeanor. Although my life was tragedy.
Quentin Crisp
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I am told that you regret not what you did but what you didn't do and so that's why I do everything, so as not to have any regrets.
Quentin Crisp