Sylvia Townsend Warner Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• And another day is tucked under my wing.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Night, Wings, Another Day

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

  9 Copy quote

• The night was at her disposal. She might walk back to Great Mop and arrive very late; or she might sleep out and not trouble to arrive till to-morrow. Whichever she did Mrs Leak would not mind. That was one of the advantages of dealing with witches; they do not mind if you are a little odd in your ways, frown if you are late for meals, fret if you are out all night, pry and commiserate when at length you return. Lovely to be with people who prefer their thoughts to yours, lovely to live at your own sweet will, lovely to sleep out all night!

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Love, Sweet, Sleep

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (1978). “Lolly Willowes: or, The loving huntsman”, Charles River Books

  10 Copy quote

• She was heavier than he expected - women always are.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Expected

  6 Copy quote

• There is a moral, of course, and like all morals it is better not pursued.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Moral, Courses, Pursued

  7 Copy quote

• I wish I could write librettos for the rest of my life. It is the purest of human pleasures, a heavenly hermaphroditism of being both writer and musician. No wonder that selfish beast Wagner kept it all to himself.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Music, Selfish, Writing

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

  10 Copy quote

• London life was very full and exciting [...] But in London there would be no greenhouse with a glossy tank, and no apple-room, and no potting-shed, earthy and warm, with bunches of poppy heads hanging from the ceiling, and sunflower seeds in a wooden box, and bulbs in thick paper bags, and hanks of tarred string, and lavender drying on a tea-tray.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Apples, Tea, Sunflower

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (1978). “Lolly Willowes: or, The loving huntsman”, Charles River Books

  14 Copy quote

• Young people are careless of their virginity; one day they may have it and the next not.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  People, One Day, May

  6 Copy quote

• Spring is strictly sentimental, self-regarding; but I burn more careless in the autumn bonfire.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Spring, Autumn, Self

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

  19 Copy quote

• One need not write in a diary what one is to remember for ever.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Writing, Needs, Diaries

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

  4 Copy quote

• One reason why my memory decays is that I have three cats, all so loving and insistent that they play cat's-cradle with every train of thought. They drove me distracted while I was having influenza, gazing at me with large eyes and saying: O Sylvia, you are so ill, you'll soon be dead. And who will feed us then? Feed us now!

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Memories, Cat, Eye

  10 Copy quote

• For the last six weeks I have found myself pestered by some characters in search of an author.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Character, Six, Lasts

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

  7 Copy quote

• But what are wishes, compared with longings?

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Wish, Desire, Longing

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

  7 Copy quote

• Sneezes ... always sound much louder to the sneezer than to the hearers. It is an acoustical peculiarity.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Sound

  5 Copy quote

• When other helpers fail and comforts flee, when the senses decay and the mind moves in a narrower and narrower circle, when the grasshopper is a burden and the postman brings no letters, and even the Royal Family is no longer quite what it was, an obituary column stands fast.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Moving, Circles, Mind

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (1988). “Selected stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• cooking is the most succulent of human pleasures.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Cooking, Pleasure, Succulents

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (2011). “Scenes of Childhood”, p.37, Faber & Faber

  14 Copy quote

• I have an idea that conscience impedes quite as many merits as faults, is a sort of alloy, a nickel which may prevent silver from bending but also prevents it from shining.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Ideas, Shining, Bending

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Valentine Ackland, Susanna Pinney (1998). “I'll stand by you: selected letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland : with narrative by Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Random House (UK)

  4 Copy quote

• There are some women ... in whom conscience is so strongly developed that it leaves little room for anything else.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Littles, Rooms, Conscience

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (1966). “Swans on an Autumn River: Stories”

  4 Copy quote

• about ten days ago I got started on a new book, and am completely, brazenly devoted to it: my hair is uncut, my letters are unwritten, the house is a shambles, and I sit here as happy as Mrs. Jellaby, though I am in 1836, not Africa. It won't go on like this, I shall fall over some obstacle, and wake out of my dreams with a black eye and broken shins: but while it does last, I daren't interrupt it. I haven't had such a spell of writing for nearly three years.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Dream, Book, Fall

  6 Copy quote

• Children driven good are apt to be driven mad.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Children, Mad, Driven

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (2011). “Scenes of Childhood”, p.8, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• when the German propaganda tries to be winsome it is like a clown with homicidal mania - ludicrous and terrifying both at once.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  War, Trying, World

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

  7 Copy quote

• ... the advantages of being a postman seemed more and more dubious. It is not a congenial profession for anyone who is at all sensitive, for people visit upon the postman all their first annoyance at receiving a couple of bills when they looked for a love-letter, and if a packet is insufficiently stamped they hand over the pennies as though to a despicable bandit, too outrageous to be denied, too groveling to be feared.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Couple, Hands, People

  8 Copy quote

• My grandmother was unsurpassable at sitting. She would sit on tombstones, glaciers, small hard benches with ants crawling over them, fragments of public monuments, other people's wheelbarrows, and when one returned one could be sure of finding her there, conversing affably with the owner of the wheelbarrow.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Tombstone, Grandmother, People

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

  12 Copy quote

• Belligerents always abolish war after a war.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  War, Abolish

  Sylvia Townsend Warner (2006). “Dorset Stories”

  7 Copy quote

• General de Gaulle is again pictured in our newspapers, looking as usual like an embattled codfish.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Usual, Faces, Appearance

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

  7 Copy quote

• Reason is a poor hand at prophecies.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Hands, Reason, Poor

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

  6 Copy quote

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