Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he'll escape.
W. H. AudenDrama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience should feel like an understudy.
W. H. AudenLanguage is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.
W. H. AudenThe relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself.
W. H. AudenI said earlier that I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that, more often than most people realize, his works may throw light upon his life. An artist with certain imaginative ideas in his head may then involve himself in relationships which are congenial to them.
W. H. AudenFollow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.
W. H. Auden