But happiness is brittle, and if men and circumstances don't destroy it, it is threatened by ghosts.

I believe that friendship, like love, of which it is a particular kind, requires nearly as much art as a successful choreography.

The written word has taught me to listen to the human voice, much as the great unchanging statues have taught me to appreciate bodily motions.

For me, a poet is someone who is 'in contact.' Someone through whom a current is passing.

Passion such as hers is all consent, asking little in return. I had merely to enter a room where she was to see her face take on that peaceful expression of one who is resting in bed. If I touched her, I had the impression that all the blood in her veins was turning to honey.

I am not sure that the discovery of love is necessarily more exquisite than the discovery of poetry.

A being afire with life cannot foresee death; in fact, by each of his deeds he denies that death exists.