Them lady poets must not marry, pal.

I can offer you only: this world like a knife

Praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business.

Wishin' was dyin' but I gotta make it all this way to that bed on these feet.

I didn't want to be like Yeats; I wanted to be Yeats.

I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.