The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington Quotes

“How can anybody be a person of quality if they wash away their ghosts with common sense?”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Even though you won't believe me
my story is beautiful
And the serpent that sang it
Sang it from out of the well.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“My head is a bier for my thoughts, my body a coffin.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“You can't love anyone until you have drawn blood and dipped in your fingers and enjoyed it.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Angels must be devoured,”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Every mistake we make in these dances must be turned into a question, otherwise they are fatal to our human condition.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Isn't it enough that the world is full of ugly human beings without making copies of them?”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“My soul?” replied Virginia. “I sold it a long time ago for a kilo of truffles.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“My father died of a heart attack during a telephone conversation, and then of course he went to Hell.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“I want to ask you to enter the Church," he went on. "I hope to win your soul."
"My soul? replied Virginia. "I sold it a long time ago for a kilo of truffles. Go ask Igname the Boar for it.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“You know how when something really touches you, it feels like burning, a burning inside.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Pájaro, serpiente, diosa, ahí estaba ella, luciendo todos los colores del arcoíris y llena de ventanitas con caras asomadas, que cantaban los sonidos de todas las cosas vivas y muertas, como un enjambre de abejas, un millón de movimientos en un solo cuerpo inmóvil.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“— No entiendo nada de esas cosas. ¿Qué comías?
— Plantas. Si como suficientes, mi piel se tornará verde. Entonces seré aún más hermoso y tú te arrojarás a mí.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“Eché a correr a trompicones, invadida por el horror. Una malsana curiosidad me hizo mirar por encima del hombro al llegar a la puerta de la casa, y vi que la mujer, en la barandilla, ondeaba la mano a modo de despedida. Y al moverla, sus dedos se desprendieron y cayeron al suelo como estrellas fugaces.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“The objects around me are becoming terribly clear and vivid, much more alive than I.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

“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.”
― Leonora Carrington, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington