An Englishman in New York (2009)

John Hurt: Quentin Crisp

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Quotes 

• Quentin Crisp : 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 as a kind of triumph. This you should cling onto. You should make no effort to try and join society. Stay right where you are. Give your name and serial number and wait for society to form itself around you. Because it will most certainly will. Neither look forward where there is doubt nor backward where this 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.

• Quentin Crisp : Buying is more American than thinking.

• Quentin Crisp : 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.

  Phillip Steele : But then that's -- You have to countenance living the rest of your life without ever hoping to be loved.

  Quentin Crisp : It really isn't as impossible as it sounds.

• Quentin Crisp : The streets of New York are the closest thing to heaven on earth. Here, you are not scurrying from one place to another as fast as your feet will carry you. You are on display. Without her outcasts, the metropolis would be a very dull place indeed. To succeed in heaven, you must avoid the shadows. If the sunny side of the street is full, walk in the road. And on no account learn the language. The more English you sound, the more likely you are to be believed.