Crisp, Quentin (orig. Denis Pratt)

US (English-born) author and homosexual activist

immigated to US 1977

wrote autobiographies "The Naked Civil Servant" 1968, "How to Become a Virgin" 1981, novel "Love Made Easy" 1977, autobiographical one-man stage show "An Evening with Quentin Crisp" 1978

• "To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody."
• "Love is the extra effort we make in our dealings with those whom we do not like and once you understand that, you understand all. This idea that love overtakes you is nonsense. This is but a polite manifestation of sex. To love another you have to undertake some fragment of their destiny."
• "Life is a game in which the rules are constantly changing; nothing spoils a game more than those who take it seriously. Adultery? Phooey! You should never subjugate yourself to another nor seek the subjugation of someone else to yourself. If you follow that Crispian principle you will be able to say'Phooey,'too, instead of reaching for your gun when you fancy yourself betrayed."
• "Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone- but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding."
• "Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life."