“No man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.”

No good poetry is ever written in a manner twenty years old, for to write in such a manner shows conclusively that the writer thinks from books, convention and cliché, not from real life.

One discards rhyme, not because one is incapable of rhyming neat, fleet, sweet, meet, treat, eat, feet but because there are certain emotions or energies which are nor represented by the over-familiar devices or patterns.

Any general statement is like a check drawn on a bank. Its value depends on what is there to meet it.

Utter originality is, of course, out of the question.

The technique of infamy is to start two lies at once and get people arguing heatedly over which is the truth.

What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage.

The artist is the antenna of the race.

Our own consciousness is incapable of having produce the universe. God, therefore, exists. That is to say, there is no reason for not applying the term God, Theos, to the intimate essence.

What matters most is not the idea, but the capacity to believe in it completely.

What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it.

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

The what is so much more important than how.

The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity.

In verse one can take any damn constant one likes, one can alliterate, or assone, or rhyme, or quant, or smack, only one MUST leave the other elements irregular.

Consider the way of the scientists rather than the way of an advertising agent for a new soap.

I guess the definition of a lunatic is a man surrounded by them.

I don’t want any special powers. I’m powerless. I wouldn’t want to see into the future, I wouldn’t want to know what anyone was thinking, ever! And I don’t want to relive my past.

When you’re scared, when you’re hanging on, when life is hurting you, then you’re going to see what you’re really made of.

Two attributes of a poet, avidity of the eye and the desire to describe that which he sees.

I see no end to the possibility and the potential of Adam Lambert. He’s a fabulous performer, and I think it would be very interesting to do something with him.

The people who inspire me most are those who are willing to see the world from a loving perspective. People who perceive obstacles as opportunities and problems as spiritual assignments. People who choose love.

It’s about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along.

Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.

A grown man, weeping, is a tough thing to see.