Irving Layton Quotes

Time flames like a paraffin stove / and what burns are the minutes I live.

Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope.

We’ll mark the butterflies disappearing over the hedge with tiny wristwatches on their wings: our fingers touching the earth, like two Buddhas

By walking I found out Where I was going. By intensely hating, how to love. By loving, whom and what to love. By grieving, how to laugh from the belly. Out of infirmity, I have built strength. Out of untruth, truth. From hypocrisy, I wove directness. Almost now I know who I am. Almost I have the boldness to be that man. Another step And I shall be where I started from.

The famous and rich, even the learned and wise, Singly or in pairs went to her dwelling To press their civilized lips to her thighs Or learn at first hand her buttocks' swelling "Old nicoise whore