There are times when images blow to fluff, and comparisons stiffen and shrivel.
All the poet can do today is warn. That is why true Poets must be truthful.
I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense conciliatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
Ambition may be defined as the willingness to receive any number of hits on the nose.
The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.
Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.
All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they should.
Always take an extra quarter to the laundry room.
I don’t think any relationship responds well to pressure.
I write quickly with a sense of urgency. I don't edit myself out of existence, meaning I'll try to write 50 or 60 pages before I start rereading, revising and editing. That just helps with my confidence.