The success of the poem is determined not by how much the poet felt in writing it, but by how much the reader feels in reading it.
John CiardiThe constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
John CiardiWithin a single scene, it seems to be unwise to have access to the inner reflections of more than one character. The reader generally needs a single character as the means of perception, as the character to whom the events are happening, as the character with whom he is to empathize in order to have the events of the writing happen to him.
John Ciardi