Among those whom I like or admire I can find no common denominator but among those whom I love I can: all of them make me laugh.
"
It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practising it.
"
Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.
"
Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
"
When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.
"
Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really is my enemy, that I am free to marry a woman when in fact she is my mother,...
"
In the detective story, as in its mirror image, the Quest for the Grail, maps (the ritual of space) and timetables (the ritual of time) are desirable....
"
Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot readThe hunter's waking thoughts.
"
Base words are uttered only by the baseAnd can for such at once be understood;But noble platitudes — ah, there's a caseWhere the most careful scrutiny...
"
Part came from Lane, and part from D.H. Lawrence;Gide, though I didn't know it then, gave part.They taught me to express my deep abhorrenceIf I caught...
"
In the eyes of others a man is a poet if he has written one good poem. In his own he is only a poet at the moment when he is making his last revision ...
