But if a stranger in the train asks me my occupation, I never answer "writer" for fear that he may go on to ask me what I write, and to answer "poetry" would embarrass us both, for we both know that nobody can earn a living simply by writing poetry.

You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference in beauty or desire.

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.

I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky.

There are three cardinal rules - don't take somebody else's boyfriend unless you've been specifically invited to do so, don't take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters.