Home > Work > The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
1 " My head is a bier for my thoughts, my body a coffin. "
― Leonora Carrington , The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
2 " Even though you won't believe memy story is beautifulAnd the serpent that sang itSang it from out of the well. "
3 " How can anybody be a person of quality if they wash away their ghosts with common sense? "
4 " Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves. "
5 " Of course, she had to put up with being insulted by the cats at times, but she insulted them back just as loudly and in the same language. "
6 " He eventually became an executive for a firm. This meant that he actually executed persons with showers of legal documents proving that they owed him quantities of money which they did not have. 'Firm' actually means the manufacture of useless objects which people are foolish enough to buy. The firmer the firm the more senseless talk is needed to prevent anyone noticing the unsafe structure of the business. Sometimes these firms actually sell nothing at all for a lot of money, like 'Life Insurance', a pretense that it is a soothing and useful event to have a violent and painful death. "
7 " For years I have been a prisoner of the people of the set now called the Watchers. These great hypnotists have no idols, their magic is powerful and their appetite insatiable. They thrive on misery, but have great delicacy in choosing their victims. They evoke compassion but have none themselves. They possess unlimited knowledge but have no understanding, and this gives them the power of absolute, concentrated hate. "
8 " Every mistake we make in these dances must be turned into a question, otherwise they are fatal to our human condition. "
9 " I went on dancing in my grotesque disguise, but not before I told him: “I am lonely and miserable but I am wearing my last skin. Since you are almost face to face with the Gods do not abandon me.” In human language, this is called love. "
10 " My soul?” replied Virginia. “I sold it a long time ago for a kilo of truffles. "
11 " Angels must be devoured, "
12 " Her dressing gown was made of live bats sewn together by their wings: the way they fluttered, one would have thought they didn’t much like it. "
13 " I had a cup of tea, thought about my day and mostly about the horse whom, though I’d only known him a short time, I called my friend. I have few friends and am glad to have a horse for a friend. After the meal I smoked a cigarette and mused on the luxury it would be to go out, instead of talking to myself and boring myself to death with the same endless stories I’m forever telling myself. I am a very boring person, despite my enormous intelligence and distinguished appearance, and nobody knows this better than I. I’ve often told myself that if only I were given the opportunity, I’d perhaps become the centre of intellectual society. But by dint of talking to myself so much, I tend to repeat the same things all the time. But what can you expect? I’m a recluse. "
14 " I saw the reflection of the moon in the water, but was horrified to see there was no moon in the sky: the moon had been drowned in the water. "
15 " I am a face myself. The quickest way of retiring from social Face-eating competition occurred to me when I attacked a policeman with my strong steel umbrella. I was quickly put into prison, where I spent months of health-giving meditation and compulsive exercise. My exemplary conduct in prison moved the Head Wardress to an excess of bounty, and that is how the Government presented me with the island, after a small and distinguished ceremony in a remote corner of the Protestant Cemetery. So here I am on the island with all sizes of mechanical artifacts whizzing by in every conceivable direction, even overhead. Here I sit. "
16 " Cast down by sadness, I walked far into the mountains where the cypresses grew so pointed one would have taken them for arms, where the brambles had thorns as big as claws. "
17 " Isn't it enough that the world is full of ugly human beings without making copies of them? "
18 " You can't love anyone until you have drawn blood and dipped in your fingers and enjoyed it. "
19 " The 'Sainthood', I may say, was actually forced upon me. If anyone would like to avoid becoming holy, they should immediately read this entire story. "