The only way to love a person is...by listening to them and seeing and believing in the god, in the poet, in them. For by doing this, you keep the god and the poet alive and make it flourish.

Everyone knows how people who laugh easily create us by their laughter,--making us think of funnier and funnier things.

Writing is the action of thinking, just as drawing is the action of seeing and composing music is the action of hearing.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. When we really listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that we never get tired of each other. We are constantly being re-created.

Orthodox criticism ... is a murderer of talent. And because the most modest and sensitive people are the most talented, having the most imagination and sympathy, these are the first ones to get killed off.

You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end-much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you.

We are always afraid to start something that we want to make very good, true, and serious.