Innocence of heart and violence of feeling are necessary in any kind of superior achievement: The arts cannot exist without them.

It is not possible, for a poet, writing in any language, to protect himself from the tragic elements in human life.... [ellipsis in source] Illness, old age, and death--subjects as ancient as humanity--these are the subjects that the poet must speak of very nearly from the first moment that he begins to speak.

The fact, and the intuition or logic about the fact, are severe coordinates in fiction. In the short story they must cross with hair-line precision.

I hope that one or two immortal lyrics will come out of all this tumbling around.

Poetry is often generations in advance of the thought of its time.

Hate does not present many choices; if hate is your solution, you are fairly certain to hate all phemonena with equal joy and intensity, without troubling to drag into prominence any one feature from the loathsome whole.

The measured blood beats out the year's delay.