America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an รฉlite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment.
W. H. AudenA writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: โWhom do you write for?โ The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I donโt want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each otherโs existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.
W. H. AudenWe are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our country because such affections come naturally to us and are good in themselves, although we may corrupt them. We are commanded to love our neighbor because our natural attitude toward the other is one of either indifference or hostility.
W. H. AudenAn honest self-portrait is extremely rare because a man who has reached the degree of self-consciousness presupposed by the desire to paint his own portrait has almost always also developed an ego-consciousness which paints himself painting himself, and introduces artificial highlights and dramatic shadows.
W. H. Auden