Sebastian Horsley Quotes & Sayings

Dandyism is a lie which reveals the truth, and the truth is that we are what we pretend to be. — Sebastian Horsley

The motivation of all artists is 'Look at me, Mum'. — Sebastian Horsley

I live my life like an open book, even though it's open on the wrong page. — Sebastian Horsley

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

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

The problem with compassion is that it is not photogenic. — 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

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

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

I don't talk, I quote. I can't help it. It's better to be quotable than honest. — Sebastian Horsley

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

There's a lot of noise about me that stops a lot of people from listening, but the good side is if you expose yourself like that, you're left with only good people who can see through you-you get rid of all the wankers. — Sebastian Horsley

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

I can count all the lovers I've had on one hand ... if I'm holding a calculator. — 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 regret everything. But so what? At least I have cause. — Sebastian Horsley

The function of music is to release us from the boredom of existence. — 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 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

I might be old, but I'm still desirable. — Sebastian Horsley

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

I am a fraud. I have cobbled together my personality from hundreds of little bits. I am simultaneously the most genuine and the most artificial person you will ever meet. — 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

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

Pain can be vitalising; it gives intensity in the place of vagueness and emptiness. If we don't suffer, how do we know that we 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

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

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

People are obsessed by happiness, but there are a lot of other invigorating experiences available. — Sebastian Horsley

If I want to dislike women, I should be allowed to. As it happens, I love them. Women to me are privately worshipped and publicly disdained. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I consider myself to be very correct and proper: an upright citizen. — Sebastian Horsley

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

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

My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish. — Sebastian Horsley

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

[ ... ] life is just the misery left between abortion and euthanasia [ ... ] — Sebastian Horsley

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

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

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

If I hear that people are litigious, I immediately dismiss them. — 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

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

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

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