Excerpts From The Naked Civil Servant. Quentin Crisp. Plume 1983 (1968).

14. Masturbation is not only an expression of self-regard: it is also the natural emotional outlet of those who, before anything has reared its ugly head, have already accepted as inevitable the wide gulf between their real futures and the expectations of their fantasies. The habit fitted snugly into my well-established world of make-believe.

19. (on Homosexuality) It was thought to be Greek in origin, smaller than socialism but more deadly--especially to children.

29. Aloofness is the posture of self-defense, but even people who quite liked me said that I felt superior to the rest of the world. I felt scared and before long I was to have good cause.

36. The world lay all before me--like a trapdoor.

38. On hearing of the death of anyone I have known well, I have usually experienced a slight thrill of pleasure. Another witness to my stupidity or weakness has been silenced.

48. The essence of happiness is its absoluteness. It is automatically the state of being of those who live in the continuous present all over their bodies. No effort is required to define or even attain happiness, but enormous concentration is needed to abandon everything else.

52. The attic which they let to me was long enough to lie down in but would not have been wide enough for that purpose and was too low to stand up in.

57. If you ask a homosexual what his newest true love is like, you will never get the answer, "He is wise or kind or brave." He will only say, "It's enormous."