'While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.'
Quotes by Cyril Connolly
'Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.'
'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 airhole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up.'
in his Journal
'Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do.'
'I shall christen this style the Mandarin, since it is beloved by literary pundits. It is the style of all the writers whose tendency is to make their language convey more than they mean to and more than they feel. It is the style of most artists and all humbug.'
in Enemies of Promise