The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead.

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

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.

One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.

Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.

Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science.