All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. I love her, and I must make her love me. I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.

It is better to repent a sin than regret the loss of a pleasure.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all.

Don't give a woman advice; one should never give a woman anything she can't wear in the evening.

Beauty ...is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.