Quotes from Osbert Sitwell

Everywhere men have unlocked the prisoners within, and from under the disguising skins the apes have leapt joyfully out.

The Rich Man's Banquet, which was to last for a decade, had now begun: the feast, it was recognised, went to the greediest.

I have always said that if I were a rich man, I would employ a professional praiser.

Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat.

We attended stables, as we attended church, in our best clothes, thereby no doubt showing the degree of respect due to horses.

The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted.

In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us.

It is fatal to be appreciated in one's own time.

Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry within us.

For Poetry is the wisdom of the blood,That scarlet tree within, which has the powerTo make dull words bud forth and burst in flower.

The artist like the idiot or clown sits on the edge of the world and a push may send him over it.

The terrible newly imported American doctrine that everyone ought to do something.

My education [takes place] during the holidays from Eton.

In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us.

Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry within us.