Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Mervyn Peake
72 quotes
“He had learned that there were other ways of life from the ways of his great home. He had completed an experience. He had emptied the bright goblet of romance; at a single gulp he had emptied it. The glass of it lay scattered on the floor. But with the beauty and the ugliness, the ice and the fire of it on his tongue and in his blood he could begin again.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The lives of the Outer Dwellers had become almost normal again. Bitterness was their bread and rivalry their wine.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then be silent,” said Titus, and in spite of his anger, the heady wine of autocracy tasted sweet upon his tongue—sweet and dangerous—for he was only now learning that he had power over others, not only through the influence of his birthright but through a native authority that was being wielded for the first time—and all this he knew to be dangerous, for as it grew, this bullying would taste ever sweeter and fiercer and the naked cry of freedom would become faint and the Thing who had taught him freedom would become no more than a memory.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His days were full of meaningless ceremonies whose sacredness appeared to be in inverse ratio to their comprehensibility or usefulness.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was when he saw the great walls looming above him that he began to run. He ran as though to obey an order. And this was so, though he knew nothing of it. He ran in the acknowledgement of a law as old as the laws of his home, the law of flesh and blood. The law of longing. The law of change. The law of youth. The law that separates the generations, that draws the child from his mother, the boy from his father, the youth from both. And it was the law of quest. The law that few obey for lack of valour. The craving of the young for the unknown and all that lies beyond the tenuous skyline.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was as young as twenty years allowed, and as old as it could make him.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no point in erecting a structure,” said Muzzlehatch, taking no notice of Titus’s question, “unless someone else pulls it down. There is no value in a rule until it is broken. There is nothing in life unless there is death at the back of it. Death, dear boy, leaning over the edge of the world and grinning like a boneyard.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a beggar.” “You are a travesty,” said Titus, “and when you die the earth will breathe again.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And yet, though his eyes shone with the thrill of his discovery, he suffered at the same time a pang of resentment—a resentment that this alien realm should be able to exist in a world that appeared to have no reference to his home and which seemed, in fact, supremely self-sufficient.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life must be various, incongruous, vile and electric. Life must be ruthless and as full of love as may be found in a jaguar’s fang.” “I like the way you talk, young man,” said Grass, “but I don’t know what you’re saying.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art should be artless, not heartless.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have a rough manner,” said Titus. “But you have saved me twice. Why are you helping me?” “I have no idea,” said Muzzlehatch. “There must be something wrong with my brain.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An aching to be once again in the land from which he grew gave him no rest. There is no calm for those who are uprooted. They are wanderers, homesick and defiant. Love itself is helpless to heal them though the dust rises with every footfall—drifts down the corridors—settles on branch or cornice—each breath an inhalation from the past so that the lungs, like a miner’s, are dark with bygone times. Whatever they eat, whatever they drink, is never the bread of home or the corn of their own valleys. It is never the wine of their own vineyards. It is a foreign brew.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What was important, now, with her eyes bent upon him, and the shadow of a branch trembling across her breast, was the immemorial game of love: no less a game for being grave. No less grave for being wild. Grave as a great green sky. Grave as a surgeon’s knife.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So you thought you’d come back, my wicked one. Where have you been?” “In hell,” said Titus. “Swigging blood and munching scorpions.” “That must have been great fun, my darling.” “Not so,” said Titus, “hell is overrated.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His mind fell asleep. His wits fell awake. His cock trembled like a harp-string.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s something else, Mr. Muzzlehatch.” “I’m sure there is. In fact there is everything else.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let go of my arm, or I will scream for God.” “He never helped you. Have you forgotten?”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pompous as only failures can be.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let him play,” whispered Cheeta. “Let him make believe that he’s alive again.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) first seen 1000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 105 (p. 1000)
“Once there were islands all a-sprout with palms: and coral reefs and sands as white as milk. What is there now but a vast shambles of the heart? Filth, squalor, and a world of little men.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) first seen 1012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 114 (p. 1012)
“Titus is seven. His confines, Gormenghast. Suckled on shadows; weaned, as it were, on webs of ritual: for his ears, echoes, for his eyes, a labyrinth of stone: and yet within his body something other – other than this umbrageous legacy. For first and ever foremost he is child. A ritual, more compelling than ever devised, is fighting anchored darkness. A ritual of the blood; of the jumping blood. These quicks of sentience owe nothing to his forebears, but to those feckless hosts, a trillion deep, of the globe’s childhood. The gift of the bright blood. Of blood that laughs when the tenets mutter ‘Weep’. Of blood that mourns when the sere laws croak ‘Rejoice!’ O little revolution in great shades!”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source