Boys are the cash of war.

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.

Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.

Conviction is possible only in a world more primitive than ours can be perceived to be. A man can achieve a simply gnomic conviction only by ignoring the radical describers of his environment, or by hating them, as convinced men have hated, say, Darwin and Freud, as agents of some devil.

Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

You have to fall in love with hanging around words.