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
art reality past
Imagination is nostalgia for the past, the absent it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality.
writing watches world
A great writer created a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.
growing-up moving son
Boys do not grow up gradually. They move forward in spurts like the hands of clocks in railway stations.
self dungeons prison
We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.
love parent desire
Except for poverty, incompatibility, opposition of parents, absence of love on one side and of desire to marry on both, nothing stands in the way of our happy union.
love greed comfort
Greed, like the love of comfort, is a kind of fear.
two people mind
Two weeks before his death, a friend asked him half jokingly if he had discovered any meaning in life. "Yes," he replied, "there is a meaning; at least, for me, there is one thing that matters - to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people."
pain bad-relationship two
There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another.
dungeon self serving
We are all serving a life-sentence in the dungeon of self
call gods whom
Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first call promising.
argue arms lifetime main river splitting truth
Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between the arms the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the main river.
fury lover searching woman
There is no fury like a woman searching for a new lover
mediocre
A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.
becomes books clearer function produce task true writer
The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.