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
mistake reality interesting
A mistake which is commonly made about neurotics is to suppose that they are interesting. It is not interesting to be always unhappy, engrossed with oneself, malignant and ungrateful, and never quite in touch with reality.
mistake matter good-work
It is a mistake to expect good work from expatriates for it is not what they do that matters but what they are not doing.
country mistake character
Flaubert spoke true: to succeed a great artist must have both character and fanaticism and few in this country are willing to pay the price. Our writers have either no personality and therefore no style or a false personality and therefore a bad style; they mistake prejudice for energy and accept the sensation of material well-being as a system of thought.
art develops equals imagination liquid nostalgia reality snapshot solution
Imagination equals nostalgia for the past, the absent; it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality
fat imprisoned man thin wildly
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin one is wildly signaling to be let out
life fear publishing-books
As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.
weed lying flower
A stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among the blossoming water plants. Then the river rises and the earth is washed away. The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; - such is our personality.
alive becomes literature living words
While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living
faithful grow loyal older situations types
When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow more loyal to situations and to types
call gods whom
Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first call promising.
absolute art entire grand requires
Art is an absolute mistress; she will not be coquetted with or slighted; she requires the most entire self-devotion, and she repays with grand triumphs.
condemned himself lazy starts talents whatever
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he starts out, have condemned himself to second-rate thoughts, and to second-rate friends
achieved aim alone appetite attaching beans broad chicken child closer cow deep eagerly eat further good kingdom man meal occur opium perfect roast stimulate themselves vague vegetable vine
Never would it occur to a child that a sheep, a pig, a cow or a chicken was good to eat, while, like Milton's Adam, he would eagerly make a meal off fruits, nuts, thyme, mint, peas and broad beans which penetrate further and stimulate not only the appetite but other vague and deep nostalgias. We are closer to the Vegetable Kingdom than we know; is it not for man alone that mint, thyme, sage, and rosemary exhale ''crush me and eat me!'' -- for us that opium poppy, coffee-berry, tea-plant and vine perfect themselves? Their aim is to be absorbed by us, even if it can only be achieved by attaching themselves to roast mutton.
learnt life maze turn walk wrong
Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turn before we have learnt to walk