A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true.
W. H. AudenThe countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own.
W. H. AudenI used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated.
W. H. AudenOur sufferings and weaknesses, in so far as they are personal, are of no literary interest whatsoever. They are only interesting in so far as we can see them as typical of the human condition.
W. H. AudenLeft to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done.
W. H. Auden