John Collier > Quotes

“I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer.”
― John Collier

“Could we make it our own, there would be an eternally inexhaustible earth and a forever lasting peace.”
― John Collier

“Poets can dodge. ("Evening Primrose")”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“My eyes were trying to tell me something that my brain refused to believe. They made their point. I was looking straight into another pair of eyes, human eyes, but large, flat, luminous. I have seen such eyes among the nocturnal creatures, which creep out under the artificial blue moonlight in the zoo.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights Vol 1

“I nipped into this sanctuary late this afternoon and soon heard the dying footfalls of closing time. From now on, my only effort will be to dodge the night watchman. Poets can dodge.”
― John Collier

“This morning I had not so much as carfare. Now I am here, on velvet. You are itching to learn of this haven; you would like to organize trips here, spoil it, send your relations-in-law, perhaps even come yourself. After all, this journal will hardly fall into your hands till I am dead. I’ll tell you. I am at Bracey’s Giant Emporium, as happy as a mouse in the middle of an immense cheese, and the world shall know me no more.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights Vol 1

“Their laughter was like the stridulation of the ghosts of grasshoppers.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“Franklin Fletcher dreamed of luxury in the form of tiger-skins and beautiful women. He was prepared, at a pinch, to forgo the tiger-skins. Unfortunately the beautiful women seemed equally rare and inaccessible. At his office and at his boarding-house the girls were mere mice, or cattish, or kittenish, or had insufficiently read the advertisements.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“How happy I might be, if only she was less greedy, better tempered, not addicted to raking up old grudges, more affectionate, with slightly yellower hair, slimmer, and about twenty years younger! But what is the good of expecting such a woman to reform?”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“Here is a liquid as colorless as water, almost tasteless, quite imperceptible in coffee, milk, wine, or any other beverage. It is also quite imperceptible to any known method of autopsy.” “Do you mean it is a poison?” cried Alan, very much horrified. “Call it cleaning fluid if you like,” said the old man indifferently. “Lives need cleaning. Call it a spot-remover. ‘Out, damned spot!’ Eh? ‘Out, brief candle!’ ” “I want nothing of that sort,” said Alan. “Probably it is just as well,” said the old man. “Do you know the price of this? For one teaspoonful, which is sufficient, I ask five thousand dollars. Never less. Not a penny less.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights Vol 1

“I have a great weakness for these dry, reserved characters who once or twice an evening come out with a vivid, penetrating remark that shows there is a volcanic core smouldering away at high pressure underneath.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“There are some young almond tress, which ordinarily look as if drawn by a childish hand. Now, as the wind sets their weak branches gibbering, they seem like shamanistic scratches on the white bone of the brittle bright night.”
― John Collier

“And she gave him a melting smile, the glutinous sweetness of which he devoured with the avidity of a diabetic who swallows a fatal spoonful of jam.”
― John Collier

“I am never repelled or chilled, as many people are, by the cheerless self-centeredness of the nervous or the unhappy.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“There are certain people who do not come to full flower until they are well over fifty. Among these are all males named Murchison. A Mr. Murchison is nothing without pink cheeks, white whiskers, and vintage port.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“I live with my guns. The world cannot utter its gross libidinous sneers at a girl who lives chastely with her Lee-Enfield, her Ballard, her light Winchester.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“Just behind his jaw bones a tiny movement was perceptible, like the movement of gills in a fish.”
― John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights

“She will want to know all you do," said the old man. "All that has happened to you during the day. Every word of it. She will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why you are looking sad."

"That is love!" cried Alan.”
― John Collier, The Chaser