If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate.

What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down.

A university is a reading and discussion club. If students knew how to use the library, they wouldn't need the rest of the buildings. The faculty's job, in great part, is to teach students how to use a library in a living way. All a student should really need is access to the library and a place to sleep.

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

Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.

The constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.

I have one head that wants to be good, And one that wants to be bad. And always, as soon as I get up, One of my heads is sad.