It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it. – W.H. Auden
A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish. – W.H. Auden
Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. – W.H. Auden
“Healing,” Papa would tell me, “is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.” – W.H. Auden
Slavery is so intolerable a condition that the slave can hardly escape deluding himself into thinking that he is choosing to obey his masters commands when, in fact, he is obliged to. Most slaves of habit suffer from this delusion and so do some writers, enslaved by an all too personal style. – W. H. Auden