I think the seventies caught the last red rays of the dying sun of this innocence, but were already a little cold and drab.
Quentin S. CrispIf there is innocence on Earth again, I tend to imagine it in more [Henry David]Thoreau sort of terms.
Quentin S. CrispI associate my childhood with two things, mainly: the North Devon countryside and a sense of connection to another world.
Quentin S. CrispWestern progress (from one damned thing to another) seems to be essentially the MO of nowhere fast. But, on the other hand, the don't-set-foot-outside-your-own-village/cave ideal or injunction that you find in Buddhism and even in the Daoism of which I'm fonder, seems . . . defeatist. And more than that, it is in contradiction to what nature actually does. Somewhere, somehow, I feel as if these two opposing principles have to be reconciled.
Quentin S. CrispI think I still have [commemorative coin ] somewhere. Why was this given to me? I think every child in the country must have received one [ from Queen's Silver Jubilee]. That's the last time that I recall something of an innocent, more-or-less unquestioning monarchist patriotism in Britain.
Quentin S. Crisp