As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot distinguish between taste and judgment, so long, that is, as the only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like; this I don't like. For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it, I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don't like it.

As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at night, but do not enter into relations. But not for the novel.

Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places.

Time will say nothing but I told you so.

A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime.

The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience.