Sebastian Horsley Quotes

I used to have about a hundred suits in my late twenties and early thirties when my stock was riding high and I was rich. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The problem with compassion is that it is not photogenic. ~ Sebastian Horsley

If someone thinks I'm posh, it just shows how lowly they are. Some people think I went to Eton. I'm far too stupid to get into Eton. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The universe is neither friendly nor hostile. It is merely indifferent. This makes me ecstatic. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Why shouldn't I be allowed to say stupid, outrageous things? ~ Sebastian Horsley

Think of how many boring, blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretion of me. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I like to remind myself that every morning I'm making a choice to live. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I don't really know what Americans are like. I've no idea. I know a few things about them. In my imagination, they have warm peachy hearts, whereas the English have horrible spiteful withered hearts - success in England inspires envy - in America, it inspires hope. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I like living sparsely. In the main room, there's no furniture - no tables, no chairs, no coffee table - not even a decaffeinated coffee table. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Everyone says Oscar Wilde was a dandy, but he wasn't - he was an aesthete. He took pleasure in food and stuff like that. Dandyism is much more austere - much more Calvinistic, more neurotic - it oscillates between narcissism and neurosis. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The problem I've got is that I really, really like drugs. I love everything about them. It is horrific being sober all the time-utterly awful. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I am not an intellectual. An intellectual is someone who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso, whereas I just say 'pass the mustard'. ~ Sebastian Horsley

People who have a reputation for being evil are usually good. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I think you are born, and I think you die. I have a pragmatic nature, but I yearn to believe. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I do a lot of things for effect, which is not to say I am superficial, but that I know how to put ideas across. ~ Sebastian Horsley

My theory is that the way you cope with the depths will ascertain the heights that you reach - they are intimately connected - and if you have a lust for life, you are also going to have a lust for death. ~ Sebastian Horsley

You may look back on your life and accept it as good or evil. But it is far, far harder to admit that you have been completely unimportant; that in the great sum of things all a man's endless grapplings are no more significant than the scuttlings of a cockroach. The universe is neither friendly nor hostile. It is merely indifferent. This makes me ecstatic. I have reached a nirvana of negativity. I can look futility in the face and still see promise in the stars. ~ Sebastian Horsley

It's really interesting because 50 years ago, if you didn't wear a hat everyone looked at you. It just proves that everything is fashion. ~ Sebastian Horsley

We can't all be stars because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as I go by. ~ Sebastian Horsley

One of the many troubles of growing older is that it gets progressively harder to find a famous historical figure who hadn't yet amounted to anything by the time he was your age. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which psychoanalysis is powerless to bestow. ~ Sebastian Horsley

But really death seems the least awful thing that can happen to someone ~ Sebastian Horsley

Being a dandy is a condition rather than a profession. It is a defense against suffering and a celebration of life. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Self-pity is the most destructive of all narcotics. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I didn't want to tell Mother I worked as a journalist. She thought I was a prostitute. Locking yourself in a room and inventing characters and conversations which do not exit is no way for a grown man to behave. ~ Sebastian Horsley

If I hear that people are litigious, I immediately dismiss them. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I can count all the lovers I've had on one hand ... if I'm holding a calculator. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The function of music is to release us from the boredom of existence. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I have wanted only one thing to make me happy. That thing is everything. ~ Sebastian Horsley

We build our character as a carapace to keep away the fear of the abyss. That's what our character is for. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I am desperate for attention. But everyone else is too. Everyone has fantasies of fame and greatness. Life for most people is a process of shedding those fantasies. ~ Sebastian Horsley

An artist has to go to every extreme, to stretch his sensibility through excess and suffering in order to feel and to communicate more. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I don't think I'm known for my gifts - I'm known for my gall. I don't want to be just a famous person - I'm too old. ~ Sebastian Horsley

My only criticism about Quentin Crisp is that the subversive must be ready to subvert themselves. I may dress for myself, but I undress for everybody else, whereas he never did that - he was never prepared to drop a bomb on everything he did. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I keep the shutters closed because I like to work in a hermetic environment. I like mirrors. When you look out of the window, all you see is ugliness, but when you look in the mirror all you see is beauty. ~ Sebastian Horsley

People either hate me or dislike me - but I realized that people aren't against you, they are for themselves. We're all prejudiced in favor of ourselves. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Getting old is horrible, but it is interesting ... one of the things I've realized is that growing old is compulsory, but growing up is optional. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I like fat girls. A woman can never be too poor or too fat. I'd take a poor fat girl over a rich thin girl like Kate Moss. ~ Sebastian Horsley

To be worthy of assassination takes more than some crappy little book. ~ Sebastian Horsley

My grandfather was a practising Quaker. My father was a nihilist. But nihilism, if you like, is the beginning of faith anyway. ~ Sebastian Horsley

A woman is supposed to have curves like an old Bentley, not like some old bike. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Is that all you want?"

At that, he reaches for me, and pulls me toward him so that we're standing face to face. "Well, I want you, but I didn't think I had to say that," he says. "In whatever capacity I can have you, for however long you want me, I'm yours."

I smile, rolling onto the balls of my feet to kiss him softly.

"Yana Crebesti," I murmur against his lips. "No matter what comes. ~ Laura Sebastian

In this sense, littering is an exceedingly petty version of claiming a billion-dollar bank bailout or fraudulently claiming disability payments. When you throw trash on the ground, you apparently don't see yourself as truly belonging to the world that you're walking around in. And when you fraudulently claim money from the government, you are ultimately stealing from your friends, family, and neighbors - or somebody else's friends, family, and neighbors. That diminishes you morally far more than it diminishes your country financially. ~ Sebastian Junger

my mother's wits were now in an attic of her head which had neither door nor stair, or at least none that I could find. ~ Sebastian Barry

Almost all modern governments are highly conscious of what journalism calls 'world opinion.' For sound reasons, mostly of an economic nature, they cannot afford to be condemned in the United Nations, they do not like to be visited by Human Rights Commissions or Freedom of the Press Committees; their need of foreign investment, foreign loans, foreign markets, satisfactory trade relationships, and so on, requires that they be members in more or less good standing of a larger community of interests. Often, too, they are members of military alliances. Consequently, they must maintain some appearance of stability, in order to assure the other members of the community or of the alliance that contracts will continue to be honored, that treaties will be upheld, that loans will be repaid with interest, that investments will continue to produce profits and be safe. "Protracted internal war threatens all of this ... no ally wishes to treat with a government that is on the point of eviction. ~ Sebastian Marshall

Because, ten-year-olds of the world, you shouldn't believe what your teachers tell you about the beauty and specialness and uniqueness of you. Or, believe it, little snowflake, but know it won't make a bit of difference until after puberty. It's Newton's lost law: anything that makes you unique later will get your chocolate milk stolen and your eye blackened as a kid. Won't it, Sebastian? Oh, yes, it will, my little Mandarin Chinese-learning, Poe-reciting, high-top-wearing friend. God bless you, wherever you are. ~ Sloane Crosley

Everything bad gets shot at in America, says John Cole, and everything good too. ~ Sebastian Barry

Western society is so unappealing. On a material level, it is clearly more comfortable and protected from the hardships of the natural world. But, as societies become more affluent they tend to require more, rather than less, time and commitment by the individual, and it's possible that many people feel that affluence and safety simply aren't a good trade for freedom. ~ Sebastian Junger

I told you guys ... don't stop believing. ~ Sebastian Vettel

We're not really conscious of what we're doing most of the time. ~ Sebastian Faulks

After years of experience running the club on St. James, Sebastian could talk easily with anyone from royalty down to the most hardened street criminal. Soon he had the men smiling and volunteering information about their work at Eversby Priory.
"Your father has a common touch," came Mr. Ravenel's quiet voice near her ear. He watched Sebastian with a mix of interest and admiration. "One doesn't usually see that in a man of his position."
"He's always mocked the notion that vice runs more rampant among commoners than nobility," Phoebe said. "In fact, he says the opposite is usually true."
Mr. Ravenel looked amused. "He could be right. Although I've seen a fair share of vice among both. ~ Lisa Kleypas

You give up your future, lose your dreams, are stained with despair ... Yet at the same time you shake off your past, fight reality, and never lose your nobility. ~ SebastiAn

I have always watched the Race of Champions on TV every year and dreamed about participating one day. It's fantastic to be invited; I'm so happy. To represent Team Germany together with Michael Schumacher is a great honor. ~ Sebastian Vettel

Oh, don't get me started! I love fantasy, I read it for pleasure, even after all these years. Pat McKillip, Ursula Le Guin and John Crowley are probably my favorite writers in the field, in addition to all the writers in the Endicott Studio group - but there are many others I also admire. In children's fantasy, I'm particularly keen on Philip Pullman, Donna Jo Napoli, David Almond and Jane Yolen - though my favorite novels recently were Midori Snyder's Hannah's Garden, Holly Black's Tithe, and Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

I read a lot of mainstream fiction as well - I particularly love Alice Hoffman, A.S. Byatt, Sara Maitland, Sarah Waters, Sebastian Faulks, and Elizabeth Knox. There's also a great deal of magical fiction by Native American authors being published these days - Louise Erdrich's Antelope Wife, Alfredo Vea Jr.'s Maravilla, Linda Hogan's Power, and Susan Power's Grass Dancer are a few recent favorites.

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope - I re-read Jane Austen's novels in particular every year.Other fantasists say they read Tolkien every year, but for me it's Austen. I adore biographies, particularly biographies of artists and writers (and particularly those written by Michael Holroyd). And I love books that explore the philosophical side of art, such as Lewis Hyde's The Gift, Carolyn Heilbrun's Writing a Woman's Life, or David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous.

(from a 2002 interview) ~ Terri Windling

After 10 weeks away from Formula One, when they started the engine here at Valencia and everything was vibrating, I found myself sitting in the RB7 and smiling. ~ Sebastian Vettel

As the helicopter fell, its dead rotors started to spin, and Ruvola used that energy to slow the aircraft down. Like downshifting a car on a hill, a hovering auto-rotation is a way of dissipating the force of gravity by feeding it back through the engine. By the time the helicopter hit the water it had slowed to a manageable speed, and all the torque had been bled out of the rotors; ~ Sebastian Junger

I'm probably one of the few people who can say I did all three types of state sector schooling. ~ Sebastian Coe

But I wouldn't choose to spend time with them." Sebastian considered this, "Especially my father. As he's dead. ~ Julia Quinn

He tore his mouth from her eager lips to whisper, "Juliet…ah, sweeting…"
Only he had ever called her sweeting. "Morgan…" she whispered back.
He froze. Jerking back from her, he stared uncomprehending into her eyes. Then his face drained of heat as suddenly as hot iron dunked in water. He dropped his hands from her. "What the devil am I doing? I must be mad…"
Pivoting away, he leaned over to brace his fists on the table. His shoulders shook from the force of his sharp, heavy breaths.
"Morgan?" She stepped forward to lay her hand on his back.
He flinched at her touch. "Don't ever call me that again. Call me Sebastian or Lord Templemore, but never Morgan. I'm not him!" He whirled to face her once more. His haunted eyes gleamed in the dimness, and his features were twisted into anger. "I think I've proved that sufficiently."
His denial struck a dagger to her heart, and she began to tremble. Surely, he didn't mean to continue in his lies after what they'd just shared. How could he? "Please, Morgan, don't-"
"I'm not Morgan!" He glanced away. "I'm not." Only his shaky hand shoving his beautiful, thick hair from his face belied his seeming control. "And another thing: no woman ruined by a man waits two years to hunt him down when her family is spoiling for vengeance. She doesn't hide the truth from them, and she doesn't come in secret to accuse her supposed debaucher."
His gaze swung back to her as he dropped his voice. "She certainly doesn't l ~ Sabrina Jeffries

Some people found it difficult to understand my relationship with my father, but that may have been because they couldn't get beyond their relationship with their own parents. ~ Sebastian Coe

The public is often accused of being disconnected from its military, but frankly it's disconnected from just about everything. Farming, mineral extraction, gas and oil production, bulk cargo transport, logging, fishing, infrastructure construction - all the industries that keep the nation going are mostly unacknowledged by the people who depend on them most. ~ Sebastian Junger

I knew Sebastian by sight long before I met him. That was unavoidable for, from his first week, he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, which seemed to know no bounds ... I was struck less by his looks than by the fact that he was carrying a large teddy-bear. ~ Evelyn Waugh

I'm here," she said, skidding to a stop. "Can we go now?"
Sebastian insisted on helping her on with the coat. "I don't think anyone's ever helped me with my coat before," Clary observed, freeing the hair that had gotten trapped under her collar. "Well, maybe waiters. Were you ever a waiter?"
"No, but I was brought up by a Frenchwoman," Sebastian reminded her. "It involves an even more rigorous course of training. ~ Cassandra Clare

It is very difficult to be a hero without an audience, although, in a sense, we are each the hero of a peculiar, half-ruined film called our life. ~ Sebastian Barry

I'm a wicked man who can, on occasion, be just a bit nice. And I've been searching for a nice girl who can, on occasion, be just a bit wicked.
-Sebastian St. Vincent ~ Lisa Kleypas

I'm seeing and hearing lots of B to B instruments, and everybody isn't, you know, using them ... a lot of these guys are trying to do it on conventional guitars, although that has its own sound, and maybe its okay. ~ John Sebastian

Whether ... civilization has most promoted or most injured the general happiness of man is a question that may be strongly contested," he wrote in 1795. "[Both] the most affluent and the most miserable of the human race are to be found in the countries that are called civilized." When ~ Sebastian Junger

In another Nabokov novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Sebastian's brother discovers two seemingly incongruous pictures in his dead brother's library: a pretty, curly-haired child playing with a dog and a Chinese man in the act of being beheaded. The two pictures remind us of the close relation between banality and brutality. ~ Azar Nafisi

You scare me, Sebastian. You're so good looking, and so clever, and so damn charming. Hell, you're even sporting a monster dick - not that I go for that sort of thing, but a lot of women do. Sebastian, if someone had to design a death trap for stupid women, you'd be it. ~ Remittance Girl

Why are you here?" he asked, staring around me at Mr. Kent.
Mr. Kent laughed uncomfortably. "Why does anyone go to a gambling house?"
"To gamble," Sebastian answered.
"To find information for our plan," I muttered, Mr. Kent's power inadvertently affecting me as well.
"What plan?" Sebastian asked.
I glared at Mr. Kent. "Nothing, nothing at all."
"No one seems to understand what a rhetorical question is these days," Mr. Kent said to the skies. ~ Tarun Shanker

Annabel stared at the door, then turned to Sebastian, feeling quite dazed. "I think my grandmother may have just given me permission to ruin myself."
"I'll do all the ruining tonight," he said with a grin. "If you don't mind. ~ Julia Quinn

Herbalife has been a part of the most challenging expeditions that I've done and the products have become a really critical and ongoing part my diet. ~ Sebastian Copeland

Maybe Ferrari's mirrors are excellent & have HD resolution ~ Sebastian Vettel

I had to get out of my record deal that I signed with my previous band and get a full solo record deal going so, with all of the paperwork that, that entails it did take a while. ~ Sebastian Bach

Evelyn, please, you have no idea how much I regret that day."
"I think I have some idea."
"I have thought every day about you - your loss. And every day, I only saw how I would make things worse if I were here."
"And I only thought of ways you would have made it better. ~ Tarun Shanker

I have always been very good at being able to structure my time. My mother had a huge influence on me. My dad was my coach. He was a hugely influential figure. ~ Sebastian Coe

West's haunted gaze returned to Phoebe's figure in the portrait. "I don't deserve her," he mumbled, without intending to.
"Of course you don't. Neither do I deserve my wife. It's an unfair fact of life that the worst men end up with the best women. ~ Lisa Kleypas

Well, I'm certainly not Ragnor Fell the exotic dancer. ~ Cassandra Clare

There's the usual suspects in there, Green Day and The Clash and The Smiths, yeah, but there's also Ella and Frank, even Dino, some Curtis Mayfield and Minor Threat and Dusty Springfield and Belle & Sebastian, and as I flip through his musical life, getting to know his tastes, I must acknowledge that not only am I not frigid, but I also may be multi-orgasmic. ~ Rachel Cohn

Go to hell," Sebastian muttered. "No doubt that was what you came to tell me tonight. If so, you're about a month too late."
"That was my intention," Westcliff admitted. "Now, however, I've decided to stay and have a snifter of brandy while you tell me what in God's name you're doing. ~ Lisa Kleypas

With peaks of joy and valleys of heartache, life is a roller coaster ride that's both scary and exciting at the same time - the rise and fall of which defines our journey. ~ SebastiAn

We humans usually feel that we are the best at everything we do, that we can safely drive ourselves. But tens of thousands of people die every year. We need to be open to having technology assist us, to find ways in which technology makes us safer. ~ Sebastian Thrun

Damn it. I don't know how to be a husband, or father. But since your standards in both areas seem to be relatively low, I may have half a chance at pleasing you. ~ Lisa Kleypas