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Quotes from Titus Alone — Mervyn Peake

1911–1968 England

← All quotes by Mervyn Peake

16 quotes

“Let him play,” whispered Cheeta. “Let him make believe that he’s alive again.”

Titus Alone (1959)

Lust is an arrogant and haughty beast and far from subtle.

Titus Alone (1959)

“I am a beggar.”
“You are a travesty,” said Titus, “and when you die the earth will breathe again.”

Titus Alone (1959)

“Let go of my arm, or I will scream for God.”
“He never helped you. Have you forgotten?”

Titus Alone (1959)

His mind fell asleep. His wits fell awake. His cock trembled like a harp-string.

Titus Alone (1959)

“There’s something else, Mr. Muzzlehatch.”
“I’m sure there is. In fact there is everything else.”

Titus Alone (1959)

He was as young as twenty years allowed, and as old as it could make him.

Titus Alone (1959)

Once there were islands all a-sprout with palms: and coral reefs and sands as white as milk. What is there now but a vast shambles of the heart? Filth, squalor, and a world of little men.

Titus Alone (1959)

Art should be artless, not heartless.

Titus Alone (1959)

Pompous as only failures can be.

Titus Alone (1959)

“You have a rough manner,” said Titus. “But you have saved me twice. Why are you helping me?”
“I have no idea,” said Muzzlehatch. “There must be something wrong with my brain.”

Titus Alone (1959)

“Life must be various, incongruous, vile and electric. Life must be ruthless and as full of love as may be found in a jaguar’s fang.”
“I like the way you talk, young man,” said Grass, “but I don’t know what you’re saying.”

Titus Alone (1959)

“There is no point in erecting a structure,” said Muzzlehatch, taking no notice of Titus’s question, “unless someone else pulls it down. There is no value in a rule until it is broken. There is nothing in life unless there is death at the back of it. Death, dear boy, leaning over the edge of the world and grinning like a boneyard.”

Titus Alone (1959)

And yet, though his eyes shone with the thrill of his discovery, he suffered at the same time a pang of resentment—a resentment that this alien realm should be able to exist in a world that appeared to have no reference to his home and which seemed, in fact, supremely self-sufficient.

Titus Alone (1959)

“So you thought you’d come back, my wicked one. Where have you been?”
“In hell,” said Titus. “Swigging blood and munching scorpions.”
“That must have been great fun, my darling.”
“Not so,” said Titus, “hell is overrated.”

Titus Alone (1959)

What was important, now, with her eyes bent upon him, and the shadow of a branch trembling across her breast, was the immemorial game of love: no less a game for being grave. No less grave for being wild. Grave as a great green sky. Grave as a surgeon’s knife.

Titus Alone (1959)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Mervyn Peake (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.