What is the special privilege of youth? It is, I think, the power of looking forward, the firm belief that the future holds something that is worth possessing, and that, therefore, one can let the present moment drop from one without regret and without fear.

My temper is not spoilt. I am absolutely non-homicidal. Nor do I ever attack unless I have been attacked first, and then Heaven have mercy upon the attacker, because I don't! I just sharpen my wits on a wooden head as a cat sharpens its claws on the wood legs of a table.

When we think of cruelty, we must try to remember the stupidity, the envy, the frustration from which it has arisen.

It is part of the poet's work to show each man what he sees but does not know he sees.

Good taste is the worst vice ever invented.

I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish.

The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.