Quotes from book
The Naked Civil Servant

The Naked Civil Servant
Quentin Crisp

The Naked Civil Servant is the 1968 autobiography of British gay icon Quentin Crisp, adapted into a 1975 film of the same name starring John Hurt.

Quentin Crisp photo

“Posing was the first job I did in which I understood what I was doing.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 19

Quentin Crisp photo

“I was amazed to receive later a substantial sum for sitting in my room and talking about myself. If only I could get some of the back pay!”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 15

Quentin Crisp photo

“Exhibitionism is like a drug. Hooked in adolescence I was now taking doses so massive they would have killed a novice.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 7

Quentin Crisp photo

“I never saw Portsmouth by day.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 13

Quentin Crisp photo

“The distinction between indoors and outdoors, which in England is usually so marked, was temporarily suspended in a hot gauzy haze.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 13

Quentin Crisp photo

“We think we write definitively of those parts of our nature that are dead and therefore beyond change, but that which writes is still changing — still in doubt. Even a monotonously undeviating path of self-examination does not necessarily lead to self-knowledge. I stumble towards my grave confused and hurt and hungry.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Closing words
The Naked Civil Servant (1968)

Quentin Crisp photo

“Keeping up with the Joneses was a full-time job with my mother and father. It was not until many years later when I lived alone that I realized how much cheaper it was to drag the Joneses down to my level.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 1