Osbert Sitwell

"The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy…to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted."

"The Rich Man's Banquet, which was to last for a decade, had now begun: the feast, it was recognised, went to the greediest."

"Educ: during the holidays from Eton."

"The artist, like the idiot or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it."

"They loved him, I think, because, with all his merits, he showed them to be rich: looking at his portraits, they understood at last how rich they really were."

"Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space."

"How simple-minded of the Germans to imagine that we British could be cowed by the destruction of our ancient monuments! As though any havoc of the German bombs could possibly equal the things we have …"

"Everywhere men have unlocked the prisoners within, and from under the disguising skins the apes have leapt joyfully out."