The spirit of the age is not synonymous with what the public likes.

The age of sages is past; the age of specialists has come.

It is a grave error for historians of literature to interpret the national spirit of the age in an oversimplified manner, ignoring the complexity of various cultural and life processes. Instead of using their imagination, they try to read the future by observing the hands of a clock which is still busy measuring the past.

The demand that poetry be immediately understandable to everyone is truly absurd.

The spirit of the age is not synonymous with what the public likes.

Poetry, in the entire course of its development, has always been trying to capture meanings and problems which are still obscure and dormant. Poetry tries to awaken them with a kiss, wherever they may be: in the air, in things, in human beings.

The public, regardless of its social origin, likes, above all, that which is easily accessible.