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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.

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Poetry makes nothing happen.

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Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.

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When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.

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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,...more

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Always the following wind of historyOf others' wisdom makes a buoyant airTill we come suddenly on pockets where Is nothing loud but us; where voices s...more

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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....more

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I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.

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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...more

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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 ...more

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no poet can know what his poem is going to be like until he has written it.