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About this quote

What does it mean?
Crisp notes he only saw Portsmouth at night, suggesting a narrow or dark experience of the city.
In plain terms
He only saw Portsmouth at night, never in the day.
What can you take from it?
Limited experience shapes perception.

Where it applies

  • travel
  • memory
  • city

Putting it to work

  • reflect on limits
  • note partial views

Questions to consider

  • How does timing shape memory?
  • What have we only seen at night?

Another view

Too brief to infer deeper meaning without more context.

More from Quentin Crisp

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

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