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 to a new poem. The moment before, he was still only a potential poet; the moment after, he is a man who has ceased to write poetry, perhaps forever.
W.H. Auden
Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
writing authenticity writers originality writers-on-writing
Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.
writing creativity poets quotes
writing creation vocation
A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.
book
We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and see our illusions die.
change fear
Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.
christmas easter crucifixion
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrewsNot to be born is the best for manThe second best is a formal orderThe dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easyThe tune is catching and will not stopDance till the stars come down from the raftersDance, dance, dance till you drop.
dance desire
In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
dogs
Evil is unspectacular and always human, And shares our bed and eats at our own table..
evil familiarity
The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.
heaven hell eating
Moreover, if great men are the only hope of the Evolutionary Process, they are morally bound to rule over the masses for their own good -- we are all here on earth to help others: what on earth the others are here for, I don't know -- and the masses have no right whatsoever to resist them.
goodness humorous
The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident.
doubt intelligence
Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.
literary-criticism
What living occasion can, Be just to the absent?
living
To make one, there must be two.
marriage together
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