You are only young once. At the time it seems endless, and is gone in a flash; and then for a very long time you are old. Sylvia Townsend Warner More Quotes by Sylvia Townsend Warner More Quotes From Sylvia Townsend Warner about ten days ago I got started on a new book, and am completely, brazenly devoted to it: my hair is uncut, my letters are unwritten, the house is a shambles, and I sit here as happy as Mrs. Jellaby, though I am in 1836, not Africa. It won't go on like this, I shall fall over some obstacle, and wake out of my dreams with a black eye and broken shins: but while it does last, I daren't interrupt it. I haven't had such a spell of writing for nearly three years. Sylvia Townsend Warner dream book fall Oh, I am all for singing. If I had had children I should have hounded them into choirs & choral societies, and if they weren't good enough for that, I would have sent them out, to sing in the streets. Sylvia Townsend Warner singing should-have children Love amazes, but it does not surprise. Sylvia Townsend Warner surprise doe Rouen shone in dark sunlight and a storm swept it away from my eyes and churned up the broad river with waves which pounced up like cats as our train drew out of the arches of the bridge. Sylvia Townsend Warner cat eye dark ... possessiveness cannot accept; it cannot even strike a fair bargain; it has to confer. Sylvia Townsend Warner possessiveness strikes accepting She was heavier than he expected - women always are. Sylvia Townsend Warner expected Elizabeth ... had the prerogative of the rich that she could be generous with large sums and niggardly over small ones. Sylvia Townsend Warner prerogative generous rich Those who spend their strength in field and factory would rather hear that their emancipation is bound to come than that it is something to be hazardously purchased by struggle and sacrifice. Sylvia Townsend Warner sacrifice fields struggle In the morning I had decided that henceforth I only cared for easy loves. It is so degrading to have to persuade people into liking one, or one's works. Sylvia Townsend Warner easy morning people ... Rembrandt is not a painter at all. He is a creator, who creates his beings, three dimensional living beings, on a two-dimensional flat surface which acts as a mute, and enforces silence on them. Sylvia Townsend Warner three silence two Reason is a poor hand at prophecies. Sylvia Townsend Warner poor reason hands The Church has lost a great religious poet in me; but I have lost an infinity of fun in the church, so the loss is even. Sylvia Townsend Warner religious loss fun Sneezes ... always sound much louder to the sneezer than to the hearers. It is an acoustical peculiarity. Sylvia Townsend Warner sound To one who has led a virtuous life, to sin is the easiest thing in the world. No experience of unpleasant consequences grits that smooth sliding fall, no recollection of disillusionment blurs that pure desire. Sylvia Townsend Warner desire world fall Belligerents always abolish war after a war. Sylvia Townsend Warner abolish war when the German propaganda tries to be winsome it is like a clown with homicidal mania - ludicrous and terrifying both at once. Sylvia Townsend Warner trying war world For the last six weeks I have found myself pestered by some characters in search of an author. Sylvia Townsend Warner six lasts character A story demanded to be written, and that is why I have not answered your letter before: a wrong-headed story, that would come blundering like a moth on my window, and stare in with small red eyes, and I the last writer in the world to manage such a subject. One should have more self-control. One should be able to say, Go away. You have come to the wrong inkstand, there is nothing for you here. But I am so weakminded that I cannot even say, Come next week. Sylvia Townsend Warner eye self next-week ... the advantages of being a postman seemed more and more dubious. It is not a congenial profession for anyone who is at all sensitive, for people visit upon the postman all their first annoyance at receiving a couple of bills when they looked for a love-letter, and if a packet is insufficiently stamped they hand over the pennies as though to a despicable bandit, too outrageous to be denied, too groveling to be feared. Sylvia Townsend Warner couple hands people Is it the realization that people recently psychoanalyzed tend to be dreadful bores which makes the U.S.A. army reject them for the draft? Sylvia Townsend Warner army realization people
