Edith Sitwell's interest in art was largely confined to portraits of herself.

The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.' 'I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self.' He turned. 'You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy.'

He was one of the most supremely stupid men I have ever met. He taught me a great deal.

The world began in hazard and will end in it.

I knew words were like chains, they held me back . . . the act of description taints the description.

I think it is interesting that we have come back to star- and space ships. Jet will do for a transport shorthand; yet when man really reaches, across the vast seas of space, he still reaches in ships.

To write poetry and to commit suicide, apparently so contradictory, had really been the same, attempts at escape.