Mervyn Peake

“Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia.”

“For what is more lovable than failure?”

“It was not often that Flay approved of happiness in others. He saw in happiness the seeds of independence, and in independence the seeds of revolt. But on an occasion such as this it was different, for the spirit of convention was being rigorously adhered to, and in between his ribs Mr. Flay experienced twinges of pleasure.”

“I want a big breakfast," said Fuchsia at last. "I want a lot to eat, I'm going to think today.”

“Oh how I hate people!”

“If seeing her an hour before her lastWeak cough into all blackness I could yetBe held by chalk-white walls”

“In great thick dusty books he readAnd hardly ever went to bedBefore it was e”

“For death is life. It is only living that is lifeless.”

“If seeing her an hour before her lastWeak cough into all blackness I could yetBe held by chalk-white”

“He saw in happiness the seeds of independence, and in independence the seeds of revolt.”

“The emotional, loving, moody child had small chance of developing into a happy woman. Had she as a girl been naturally joyus yet all that had befallen her must surely have driven away the bright birds, one by one, from her breast. As it was, made of more sombre clay, capable of deep happiness, but more easily drawn to the dark than the light, Fuchsia was even more open to the cruel winds of circumstance which appeared to have singled her out for particular punishment.”

“Each day we live is a glass roomUntil we break it with the thrustingOf the spirit and pass throughThe splintered walls to the green pasturesWhere the birds and buds are breakingInto fabulous song and hueBy the still w”

“From daybreak to sunset she turned her thoughts, like boulders, over. She set them in long lines. She rearranged their order...”

“To live at all is miracle enough.”

“Why break the heart that never beat from love?”

“I, while the gods laugh, the world's vortex am;Maelström of passions in that hidden seaWhose waves of all-time lap the coasts of me;And in small compass the dark waters cram.”

“How merciful a thing is man's ignorance of his immediate future! What a ghastly, paralysing thing it would have been if all those present could have known what was about to happen within a matter of seconds! For nothing short of pre-knowledge could have stopped the occurrence, so suddenly it sprang upon them.”

“Bellgrove, eminently lovable, because of his individual weakness, his incompetence, his failure as a man, a scholar, a leader or even as a companion, was neverless utterly alone. For the weak, above all, have their friends. Yet his gentleness, his pretence at authority, his palpable humanity were unable, for some reason or other, to function. He was demonstrably the type of venerable and absent-minded professor about whom all the sharp-beaked boys of the world should swarm.”

“Gormenghast. Withdrawn and ruinous it broods in umbra: the immemorial masonry: the towers, the tracts. Is all corroding? No. Through an avenue of spires a zephyr floats; a bird whistles; a freshet beats away from a choked river. Deep in a fist of stone a doll's hand wriggles, warm rebellious on the frozen palm. A shadow shifts its length. A spider stirs... And darkness winds between the characters.- Gormenghast”

“Lingering is so very lonely when one lingers all alone.”