James

“Cold love’s the loveliest love of all. So clear, so crisp, so empty. In short, so civilized.”
― Mervyn Peake, The Gormenghast Novels

“His youth had been so long ago that he could remember nothing of it but he presumed, erroneously, that he had tasted the purple fruit, had broken hearts and hymens, had tossed flowers to ladies on balconies, had drunk champagne out of their shoes and generally been irresistible.”
― Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast

“He was endowed with the extraordinary powers of endurance characteristic of madmen and simpletons.”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

“She had expressed herself, as women will, in a smug broadside of pastel shades. Nothing clashed because nothing had the strength to clash; everything murmured of safety among the hues; all was refinement.”
― Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast