One of the marks of a great poet is that he creates his own family of words and teaches them to live together in harmony and to help one another.

The only test of work of literature is that it shall please other ages than its own.

Every writer and artist wonders what in the world people of other professions can find to live for.

A bad memory is the mother of invention.

Poets and painters are outside the class system, or rather they constitute a special class of their own, like the circus people and the Gypsies.

Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.

Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.