Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connollywas a literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizonand wrote Enemies of Promise, which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of fiction that he had aspired to be in his youth...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth10 September 1903
book writing air
I review novels to make money, because it is easier for a sluggard to write an article a fortnight than a book a year, because the writer is soothed by the opiate of action, the crank by posing as a good journalist, and having an air hole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up.
hate hatred dividends
Hate is crystallized fear, fear's dividend, fear objectified. We hate what we fear and so where hate is, fear will be lurking.
self optimism negative
Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.
sarcastic sarcasm intelligence
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.
art enemy atheism
There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.
hands lazy laziness
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends.
sweet past smell
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.
nature men literature
Classical and romantic: private language of a family quarrel, a dead dispute over the distribution of emphasis between man and nature.
small-numbers civilization people
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
literature tasks produce
The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.
faithful literature loyal
When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types.
christian atheism poison
Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action.
class delirium-tremens apathy
Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
art fall dark
The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.