Comyns Quotes

I dreaded going to the farm, but when I arrived there, it was very much better than I expected. Things one dreads usually are: it's only the things we look forward to that go all wrong. ~ Barbara Comyns

When I left the kitchen the whole family were all gazing upwards at the dancing flies. ~ Barbara Comyns

Two people were swimming in the sea
One was alive and the other dead. See. ~ Barbara Comyns

She came to a little wrecked pleasure-steamer, which had become embedded in the mud several summers ago and which no one had bothered to remove. It had been a vulgar, tubby little boat when it used to steam through the water with its handful of holiday-makers, giving shrill whistles at every bend and causing a wash that disturbed the fishermen as they sat peacefully on the banks; but, now it lay sideways in the mud with its gaudy paint all bleached, it was almost beautiful. ~ Barbara Comyns

Authors I've longed to write like - but realize I actually can't even begin to - include Poe, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kafka, Daniil Kharms, Witold Gombrowicz, Emily Dickinson, Robert Walser, Barbara Comyns, Ntozake Shange, Camille Laurens, Zbigniew Herbert, and Jose Saramago. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

I had a kind of idea if you controlled your mind and said, 'I won't have any babies' very hard, they most likely wouldn't come. I thought that was what was meant by birth-control, but by this time I knew that idea was quite wrong. ~ Barbara Comyns

I think I would rather hear roundabout music than any symphony concert. I know Beatrix would be disgusted to hear me say so, but its so gladsad somehow and makes me feel brave, late at night long after we were in bed we could hear the music floating over the river, and see the reflected moving lights on our walls, it was beautiful to lie in bed like that. ~ Barbara Comyns

Her face worked in an odd way, like knitting coming undone. ~ Barbara Comyns

Now I lay down on this tree and felt a lonely sadness coming over me in waves. Slow tears ran from my eyes and trickled into my ears. I thought, 'I even cry in a humble, common way, with tears flowing into my ears.' But the humble, common tears had relieved me[ ... ] ~ Barbara Comyns

The Red Comyns had always done well behind the throne. The king was but an instrument, as his father used to say. They were the musicians. ~ Robyn Young