Let us define 'man' as a poet perpetually conspiring against himself.

I don’t believe one reads to escape reality. A person reads to confirm a reality he knows is there, but which he has not experienced.

Comedians are the nearest to suicide.

It’s only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdry that you can get tenderness.

I am just a refugee from the long slow toothache of English life. It is terrible to love life so much you can hardly breathe!

Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.

Poetry is what happens when an anxiety meets a technique.