Christmas 1980s Style With Quentin Crisp

Please left click to enlarge the text, to more fully enjoy
the unsentimental generosity of spirit that Quentin exemplified
as much towards Christmas day as the other 364 days of the year. 

 

Quentin Crisp

Could have explained the popularity
of Donald Trump. and other demagogues
who have become popular since his death,
if more people had listened to Crisp
when he was highly quotable and he said... 

'Charisma is the ability to influence without logic'.

This sentence alone would explain
why when he is interviewed on television
Trump starts thinking as he speaks,
but he never completes a thought.

Part way through another  thought
comes to him and the interviewer,
who should tell Trump to finish the first thought,
seems to be overwhelmed by the Trump charisma.

Crisp, by comparison, was an excellent
television interviewee, he tidied up
all his thoughts, as he presented himself
as more composed than television suggested
that anyone, once so marginalised, had a right to be.  

Success Through Failure

'To fail elegantly is a greater success
than to have to succeed
and [to] never have to admit to failure.
In your élan [as you fail] you will learn more
about yourself and know yourself
beyond the definition of others...
your self-definition will shape
how others see you...  that is why
failure is more successful than success.'.

 - Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp On Old Age

Quentin Crisp (to handsome young man on the street): 
"What's the matter, sexy? Don't you like dehydrated fruit?

Practice Makes Imperfect

When Quentin Crisp prepared to export himself
to America for the rest of his natural life in 1981,
he was asked 'Are you a practising homosexual'.
With his usual gift for being quotable and evasive
he replied, 'I didn't need the practice, I was perfect'.
One of the bigger regrets of my life
is that in my imperfection I practised too much,
and nearly everything that I practised took me
further and further away from my perfection.

That Other Queens Speech

'Life is a funny thing that happened to me
on the way to the grave'-Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp born Dec 25th 1908-died 21st November 1999

Bad Family Values

'Living en famile provides the strongest motives
for rudeness combined with the maximum
opportunity for displaying it.'-Quentin Crisp 

Welcome To The Self Renewing Boredom

'It is not the simple statement
of facts that ushers in freedom;
it is the constant repetition
of them that has this liberating
effect. Tolerance is the result,
not of enlightenment, but of boredom'.
-Quentin Crisp

In Democracies Yoked To Capitalism

The open secret is how much
society is a pyramid scheme,
The theories for which
are written by the rich for the rich,
to justify always making more
there are far more losers than winners.

Every top dog is the top
of a hierarchy of underlings.
The gain at the top
is inversely proportional
to the number of people
decreasingly gainfully
employed beneath.

The most achievable success
is to make an art out losing
that leaves you with self respect.

"Don't keep up with The Jones'-
drag them down to your level"
-Quentin Crisp.

Choice in Disbelief

'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 

Indirect Language

'Euphemisms are unpleasant truths
wearing diplomatic cologne'-Quentin Crisp

'The Elegance Of Failure vs The Pride In 'Achievement'

'To fail elegantly is a greater success
than to have to succeed
and never have to admit to failure.
In your élan you will learn more
about yourself and know yourself
beyond the definition of others...
your self-definition will shape
how others see you...  that is why
failure is more successful than success.'
 - Quentin Crisp