I want to go and see the world. I want to know the world like the palm of my hand.

I specialize in what the French call la petite histoire. I am interested in the individual thumbprint.

Childhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good.

Love must be learned and learned again; There is no end.

And yet, we know how fatal the pursuit of liveliness may be: it may result in ... tiresome acrobatics. ... Flashy effects distract the mind. They destroy their persuasiveness; you would not believe a man was very intent on ploughing a furrow if he carried a hoop with him and jumped through it at every other step. ... When virtuosity gets the upper hand of your theme, or is better than your idea, it is time to quit.

I love to praise what I love, and I won't for a minute believe that love is blind -- indeed, it gives clearness without sharpness, and surely that is the best light in which to look at anything.

No man can be explained by his personal history, least of all a poet.