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.
John CiardiLove 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.
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