Penelope Gilliatt Quotes & Sayings

Black and white are the most ravishing colors of all in film. — Penelope Gilliatt

The masters of the comic spirit are often our prophets. — Penelope Gilliatt

It [humor] inhabits the marginal. — Penelope Gilliatt

A satirist, often in danger himself, has the bravery of knowing that to withhold wit's conjecture is to endanger the species. — Penelope Gilliatt

[On John Cleese:] He sometimes seems to swat at his own thoughts as if they were bees. — Penelope Gilliatt

Funniness is the wild card in the pack. — Penelope Gilliatt

[On Watermelon Man:] ... it is impossible to look at this film without its giving you a share in its insane bad taste, which is rather companionable of it ... — Penelope Gilliatt

People in a temper often say a lot of silly, terrible things they mean. — Penelope Gilliatt

Rosalia is dressed in raven clothes forty years too old for her, so that she seems to be in mourning for her life ... — Penelope Gilliatt

Movies have now reached the same stage as sex - it's all technique and no feeling. — Penelope Gilliatt

Jokes are ideally pleasurable. They are an act of assassination without a corpse, a moment of total annihilation that paradoxically makes anything possible. — Penelope Gilliatt

Why is it that beautiful women never seem to have curiosity?
Is it because they know they're classical? With classical things the Lord finished the job. Ordinary ugly people know they're deficient and they go on looking for the pieces. — Penelope Gilliatt

Prague is like a vertical Venice steps everywhere. — Penelope Gilliatt