Baudelaire's L'Héautontimorouménos was long seen to be a sexual sadomasochistic poem, it is now generally accepted that the poem is about writing poetry.

Actions have consequences. Ignorance about the nature of those actions does not free a person from responsibility for the consequences. (28)

I had not read George Eliot, so read a few. I felt ashamed I hadn't read "Middlemarch" before.

I like it to be quiet, and it usually occurs in the morning. There are three or four places in my house where I can write and I like to keep moving around. The moment I find myself falling into a necessary routine, I change it. I'd rather not accumulate superstitions.

It was as if pain were a room he had entered and the door had been locked behind him.

Most women are more into real estate than sex. They want to own you.

For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.