All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
Cyril ConnollyRead
Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do.
Interpretation
Belief and conviction enhance the quality of artistic expression.
Cyril Connolly suggests that true belief in ideals, emotions, or visions is fundamental to creating profound poetry. Those who possess deep convictions are more likely to produce art that resonates deeply with others, as their passion and sincerity infuse their work with authenticity.
In practice
During a poetry reading, to emphasize the importance of passion in creative expression.
All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
When I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself? Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well?
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends.
The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure.
We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Her other mother smiled brightly and the hair on her head drifted like plants under the sea.
We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.
Do not write if there is no tremendous urge to do so. At the heart, there must be an inspiration or muse or one of those old-fashioned things. Else, why bore yourself, destroy other people's interest and kill trees?
I think good-looking people seldom make good television. And American television studios almost concede before they start: 'Well, it won't be good, but at least it'll be good-looking. We'll have nice-looking girls in tight shirts with F.B.I. badges and fit-looking guys with lots of hair gel vaulting over things.'
Each night about this time he puts on sadness like a garment and goes on writing.
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