We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.

Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.

Reasons for not keeping a notebook: 1) the ambiguity of the reader

The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.

Reasons for not keeping a notebook: 1) the ambiguity of the reader--it is never quite oneself. 2) I usually hate the sight of my handwriting--it lives too much and I dislike its life--I mean by "lives," of course, betrays too much!

Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.