A . . . poet is a discoverer rather than an inventor.

It only takes two facing mirrors to build a labyrinth.

In all fiction, when a man is faced with alternatives he chooses one at the expense of others.

My undertaking is not difficult, essentially. I should only have to be immortal to carry it out.

The steps a man takes from the day of his birth until that of his death trace in time an inconcievable figure. The Divine Mind intuitively grasps that form immediately, as men do a triangle.

In our dreams (writes Coleridge) images represent the sensations we think they cause; we do not feel horror because we are threatened by a sphinx; we dream of a sphinx in order to explain the horror we feel.

Writing is nothing more than a guided dream.