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

The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.

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!

Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.

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.

I find righteous denunciations of the present state of the language no less dismaying than the present state of the language.

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