Mervyn Peake

"This upstart, this dangerous, unprecedented upstart, whose pursuit of the doctrines was propelled by a greed for personal power as cold as it was tameless."

"But we have seen it in the air, A fairy like a William Pear"

"When Uncle Jake Became a snake He never found it out; And so as no one mentions it One sees him still about."

"I saw all of a sudden No sign of any ship."

"Leave the stronger and the lesser things to me! Lest that conger named Vanessa who is longer than a dresser visits thee."

"Each day I live in a glass room Unless I break it with the thrusting Of my senses and pass through The splintered walls to the great landscape."

"The paper is breathless Under the hand And the pencil is poised Like a warlocks wand."

"Its not their fault if, in the heat Of their transactions, I repeat Its not their fault if vampires meet And gurgle in their spats."

"Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls."

"This tower, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven."

"It was not possible for him to visit his library as often as he wished, for the calls made upon him by the endless ceremonials which were his exacting duty to perform robbed him for many hours each day of his only pleasure—books."

"Oer seas that have no beaches To end their waves upon, I floated with twelve peaches, A sofa and a swan."