The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.

If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.

What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves.

There is a great deal of difference in believing something still, and believing it again.

Let all your thinks be thanks.

The stars are dead. The animals will not look: We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.

Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear.