There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife - a tyrannical midwife.
Stephen SpenderNever allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.
Stephen SpenderA poet has to adapt himself, more or less consciously,to the demands of his vocation, and hence the peculiarities of poets and the condition of inspiration which many people have said is near to madness... The problem of creative writing is essentially one of concentration... a focusing of the attention in a special way.
Stephen Spender