Penelope Gilliatt Quotes

A satirist, often in danger himself, has the bravery of knowing that to withhold wit's conjecture is to endanger the species.

Jokes are ideally pleasurable. They are an act of assassination without a corpse, a moment of total annihilation that paradoxically makes anything possible.

Rosalia is dressed in raven clothes forty years too old for her, so that she seems to be in mourning for her life ...

Why is it that beautiful women never seem to have curiosity?
Is it because they know they're classical? With classical things the Lord finished the job. Ordinary ugly people know they're deficient and they go on looking for the pieces.

Movies have now reached the same stage as sex - it's all technique and no feeling.

People in a temper often say a lot of silly, terrible things they mean.

[On Watermelon Man:] ... it is impossible to look at this film without its giving you a share in its insane bad taste, which is rather companionable of it ...