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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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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
Convention
Conventions
Stay
Alive
Believe

More quotes by Quentin Crisp

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When I was young, I wanted to find the Great Dark Man. When I said that I realise now that people thought that by 'dark' I meant black, and that by 'great' I meant big. Whereas I only meant a strong, mysterious person someone who would 'take me away from all this.'
Quentin Crisp
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I have to realise that as I am only English and am allowed to live in America, I have to give something in return. And since I cannot build a hospital, or endow a university, I can only give my infinite availability.
Quentin Crisp
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The world was very feminine when I was young. And now it's very masculine.
Quentin Crisp
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In England, nobody's your friend.
Quentin Crisp
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Whenever we confront an unbridled desire we are surely in the presence of a tragedy-in-the-making.
Quentin Crisp
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For an introvert his environment is himself and can never be subject to startling or unforeseen change.
Quentin Crisp
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The key is never, never work. Nothing is more aging than work. It's not only the strain of getting up in the morning for work, but it's the resentment that settles on your face
Quentin Crisp
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The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy they want to be right.
Quentin Crisp
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Europeans are quarrelsome.
Quentin Crisp
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I can't remember ever having a tragic demeanor. Although my life was tragedy.
Quentin Crisp
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Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency.
Quentin Crisp
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The absolute nothingness of death is a blessing. Something to look forward to.
Quentin Crisp
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Many [hooligans] discover to their shame that they have scruples they have roots and, greatest disadvantage of all, they have hope. The fathers superior of the order do not try to influence their children in Satan they merely shake their heads in sorrow. They know that the apostate must work out his own damnation.
Quentin Crisp
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Love is the extra effort we make in our dealings with those whom we do not like and once you understand that, you understand all. This idea that love overtakes you is nonsense. This is but a polite manifestation of sex. To love another you have to undertake some fragment of their destiny.
Quentin Crisp
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I went out into the world when I was about 22. I wrote books and I illustrated books and did book covers, and I taught tap-dancing, and I was a model in the art school. I had no ability for any of those things, but what else could I do?
Quentin Crisp
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Britain cherishes her eccentrics and wisely holds that the function of government is to build a walled garden in which anarchy can flourish.
Quentin Crisp
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What is privacy if not for invading?
Quentin Crisp
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I don't think I have a tragic demeanor.
Quentin Crisp
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I came first to America in 1977 at the invitation of a man who wanted to make my life story into a musical. But my agent said it was not to be and it was never done. So I went back, but I'd seen New York, and I wanted to live there. Because everybody talks to you in the street. See, nobody talks to you in England.
Quentin Crisp
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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