I have become infected, now that I see how beautifully a book is coming out of all this.

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.

Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen.

All my life I have been trying to learn to read, to see and hear, and to write.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work. I am the grass. I cover all.

I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness. And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men. They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them. And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river and I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

The scholars and poets of an earlier time can be read only with a dictionary to help.