As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mugs game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing. – T. S. Eliot
Most painters have painted themselves. So have most poets: not so palpably indeed, but more assiduously. Some have done nothing else. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers
A growing awareness of the depth of popular attachment to the family has led some liberals to concede that family is not just a buzzword for reaction. – Christopher Lasch
When a place gets crowded enough to require IDs, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere. – Robert A. Heinlein
But I think the real tension lies in the relationship between what you might call the pursuer and his quarry, whether its the writer or the spy. – John le Carre
