Movies have now reached the same stage as sex - it's all technique and no feeling.

- Penelope Gilliatt

[On John Cleese:] He sometimes seems to swat at his own thoughts as if they were bees.

- Penelope Gilliatt

People in a temper often say a lot of silly, terrible things they mean.

- Penelope Gilliatt

Rosalia is dressed in raven clothes forty years too old for her, so that she seems to be in mourning for her life.

- Penelope Gilliatt

jokes are ideally pleasurable. They are an act of assassination without a corpse, a moment of total annihilation that paradoxically makes anything po…

- Penelope Gilliatt

Why is it that beautiful women never seem to have curiosity? Is it because they know they're classical? With classical things the Lord finished the j…

- Penelope Gilliatt

[On Watermelon Man:] ... it is impossible to look at this film without its giving you a share in its insane bad taste, which is rather companionable …

- Penelope Gilliatt

Funniness is the wild card in the pack.

- Penelope Gilliatt

Great comedy calls large matters into question.

- Penelope Gilliatt