to live means to lack something at every moment

Poe is the only impeccable writer. He was never mistaken.

A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.

Oh, hasten not this loving act, Rapture where self and not-self meet: My life has been the awaiting you, Your footfall was my own heart's beat.

...in song the words tend to lose their significance, do often lose it, while at the other extreme, in current prose it is the musical value that tends to disappear - so that verse stands symmetrically, as it were, between song, on the one hand, and prose on the other - and is thus admirably and delicately balanced between the sensual and the intellectual power of language.

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.

A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.