Extracts from An Englishman in New York…the impressive story of the eccentric Quentin Crisp.
What would you be like if there was nobody else in the world? Who would you be if the only opinion that mattered was yours? Because if you want to be truly happy, you must be that person. You must search inside yourself for what is uniquely you. When you find it, polish it until it becomes your style. It’s no good being a pig farmer for 30 years, looking back and saying, “I was meant to be a ballet dancer”. By that time, pigs are your style.
If I have an ambition, it is to know everyone in the world before I die. I’m not doing badly.
Mr. Steele, if your happiness is entirely dependent on another’s love, you will never truly be happy. If your love is valuable to you, it is because you give it. You must be ready to expect nothing in return. Once you accept this, your heart will never be broken again. (…) It really isn’t as impossible as it sounds.
Persistence is your greatest weapon. It is in the nature of barriers that they fall. Do not seek to become like your opponents. You have the burden and the great joy of being outsiders. Every day you live is a kind of triumph. This you should cling onto. Neither look forward where there is doubt, nor backward where there is regret. Look inward and ask not if there is anything outside that you want, but whether there is anything inside that you have not yet unpacked.
