It was not certain what significance the ceremony held... but the formality was no less sacred for it being unintelligible Mervyn Peake More Quotes by Mervyn Peake More Quotes From Mervyn Peake When he at least reached the door the handle had cease to vibrate. Lowering himself suddenly to his knees he placed his head and the vagaries of his left eye (which was for ever trying to dash up and down the vertical surface of the door), he was able by dint of concentration to observe, within three inches of his keyholed eye, an eye which was not his, being not only of a different colour to his own iron marble, but being, which is more convincing, on the other side of the door. Mervyn Peake ironeyedoors Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It (Gormenghast trilogy) is a very, very great work ... a classic of our age. Mervyn Peake threeageworld Countless candles dribbled with hot wax, and their flames, like little flags, fluttered in the unchartered currents of air. Thousands of lamps, naked, or shuttered behind coloured glass, burned with their glows of purple, amber, grass-green, blue, blood red and even grey. The walls of Gormenghast were like the walls of paradise or like the walls of an inferno. The colours were devilish or angelical according to the colour of the mind that watched them. They swam, those walls, with the hues of hell, with the tints of Zion. The breasts of the plumaged seraphim; the scales of Satan. Mervyn Peake purplewallglasses Lingering is so very lonely when one lingers all alone. Mervyn Peake lingeringall-alonelonely Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia. Mervyn Peake gormenghastlife-is For death is life. It is only living that is lifeless. Mervyn Peake lifeless [Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience. Mervyn Peake dreamgivingbook I am clever enough to know that I am clever. Mervyn Peake enoughcleverknows The Earth swirls down through the ominous moons of preconsidered generations. Mervyn Peake generationsmoonearth In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity, the rising across the terrible field of that last enormous, unanswerable question. Mervyn Peake painrealdoors For what use are books to anyone whose days are like a rook's nest with every twig a duty. Mervyn Peake nestsusebook Cold love’s the loveliest love of all. So clear, so crisp, so empty. In short, so civilized. Mervyn Peake emptyclearcold Seeing an Earl as an owl on a mantelpiece, and having part of one's face removed by a cat, both on the same morning, can temporarily undermine the self-control of any man. Mervyn Peake catmorningmen Years on end, and swords on end - where will it end, if our ears unbend - what shall I spend on a wrinkled friend in a pair of tights like a bunch of lights? Mervyn Peake tightslightyears Mount and begone. The world awaits you. Mervyn Peake world Something to remember, that: cats for missiles. Mervyn Peake missilescatremember He had no longer any need for home, for he carried his Gormenghast within him. All that he sought was jostling within himself. He had grown up. What a boy had set out to seek a man had found, found by the act of living. Mervyn Peake homemenboys Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around it s Outer Walls. Mervyn Peake walltakenmean I am too rich already, for my eyes Mervyn Peake richeyegold Through her, in microcosm, the wide earth sobbed. The starglobe sank in her; the colours faded. The death-dew rose and the wild birds in her breast climbed to her throat and gathered songless, hovering, all tumult, wing to wing, so ardent for those climes where all things end. Mervyn Peake rosewingsbird
