Quotes from Mervyn Peake

It was only when these nefarious doings were satisfactorily completed that Steerpike visited the aunts for the second time and re-primed them in their very simple rôles as arsonists.

Mind the corner of that chair, my very dear Mrs Slagg, and oh! my dear woman, you must look where you're going, by all that's circumspect, you really must.

Aren't there any, dear?' 'No,' said Fuchsia. 'Why aren't there?' Fuchsia realized that Mrs Slagg knew virtually nothing, but the long custom of asking her questions was a hard one to break down. This realization that grown-ups did not necessarily know any more than children was something against which she had fought.

Never having had either positive cruelty or kindness shown to her by her parents, but only an indifference, she was not conscious of what it was that she missed – affection.

tension is the opposite of peace - but tension is the brother of silence.

Ladies did not participate in 'situations'.

What do you think I want with men? The beasts! I hate them. Blind, stupid, clumsy, horrible, heavy, vulgar things they are.

His youth had been so long ago that he could remember nothing of it but he presumed, erroneously, that he had tasted the purple fruit, had broken hearts and hymens, had tossed flowers to ladies on balconies, had drunk champagne out of their shoes and generally been irresistible.

His service to the family was honoured by a certain artificial equality of status.

Then came the crumbling away of a grey veil from the face of the night.

Toss back your coif and quaff, my querulous queen!

For your brain is alone now your passion goes, And your coloured dreams run cold And there's nothing left but a gaping skull On the spine of the wounded world. But we are well! O sailor! sailor! O we are very well! Do not tremble as you stand, O frightened sailor For death is so mean and small. It snatches away the burning breath And it snatches the useless clay But what can it do to halt the square-rigged Soul as it steers away?

The youth felt it would be useless to clear up the problem of his name.

This is the darkness: I have known great storms Scourge the long day - but this is motionless And sterile: this is something featureless The blind brain turning upon drugs and worms. This is the Darkness

Not only were the books lost and the thoughts in the books, but what was to him, perhaps, the most searching loss of all, the hours of rumination which lifted him above himself and bore him upon their muffled and enormous wings. Not a day passed but he was reminded of some single volume, or of a series of works, whose very positions on the walls was so clearly indented in his mind.

Oh Alfred! Alfred!' she cried. 'I am a woman, aren't I?' The hands were shaking with excitement as they gripped one another. 'I'll show them I am!' she screamed, her voice losing all control. And then, calming herself with a visible effort, she turned to her brother and, smiling at him with a coyness that was worse than any scream – 'I'll send their cards to them tomorrow, Alfred,' she whispered.

During the first half of this early period only two major ceremonies befell the child and of these Titus was happily unaware, namely the christening, which took place twelve days after his birth, and a ceremonial breakfast on his first birthday.

This is a love that equals in its power the love of man for woman and reaches inwards as deeply. It is the love of a man or of a woman for their world. For the world of their centre where their lives burn genuinely and with a free flame.

Anything, seen without prejudice, is enormous.

With people, so with trees With people, so with trees: where there are groups Of either, men or trees, some will remain Aloof while others cluster where one stoops To breathe some dusky secret. Some complain And some gesticulate and some are blind; Some toss their heads above green towns; some freeze For lack of love in copses of mankind; Some laugh; some mourn; with people, so with trees.

Non poté fare altro, naturalmente, che incorniciare le sue frasi in quel modo vuoto e stantio di cui ormai era schiavo. Qualsiasi cosa si provi, nel cuore o nello stomaco, le vecchie abitudini restano radicate. Parole e gesti rispondono a leggi dittatoriali, senza fantasia; un rito spettrale, che nega lo spirito.

However writhes the snake the scales must follow.

Conceit I heard a winter tree in song: Its leaves were birds, a hundred strong; When all at once it ceased to sing, For every leaf had taken wing.

Titus watched Keda's face with his violet eyes, his grotesque little features modified by the dull light at the corner of the passage. There was the history of man in his face. A fragment from the enormous rock of mankind. A leaf from the forest of man's passion and man's knowledge and man's pain. That was the ancientness of Titus.