Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether. – Cyril Connolly
Green leaves on a dead tree is our epitaph — green leaves, dear reader, on a dead tree. – Cyril Connolly
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. – Cyril Connolly
There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives. – Cyril Connolly
Neither dead nor alive, the hostage is suspended by an incalculable outcome. It is not his destiny that awaits for him, nor his own death, but anonymous chance, which can only seem to him something absolutely arbitrary. He is in a state of radical emergency, of virtual extermination. – Jean Baudrillard