Art & Creativity Quote by Cyril Connolly

Connolly draws a bright, slightly smug line between the slow-burn pleasure of literature and the instant-hit utility of journalism, and he does it with a critic's favorite weapon: a definition that flatters his own standards. “Read twice” isn’t just about difficulty or depth; it’s about rereading as a cultural ritual, the reader returning for texture, ambiguity, style-for-its-own-sake. The second reading is the proof of artistry: if the sentences still yield something after the plot is known, the writing has earned its keep.

Then he pivots to journalism: “grasped at once.” The verb choice matters. “Grasp” is physical, even a little desperate, as if the reader is snatching meaning on the run. Connolly isn’t merely describing speed; he’s implying disposability. Journalism, in this view, is designed to be consumed in one swallow, metabolized into opinion, and replaced by the next edition. The subtext is a warning about the marketplace: news must be legible, immediate, and therefore vulnerable to simplification.

The context helps sharpen the edge. Connolly wrote as a mid-century British man of letters, immersed in magazines, reviews, and the anxious prestige economy that separated “serious” art from mass communication. He knew journalism from the inside, which gives the line its double charge: it’s partly confession, partly a bid to protect literature’s aura.

The kicker is that Connolly’s division is also a performance. It makes journalism sound inferior while quietly admitting its power: to be “grasped at once” is to shape the day’s reality before anyone has time for a second read.