I know that poetry is indispensible, but to what I could not say.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot, which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

Poetry is not a career, but a mug 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.

Take the commonplace, clean and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet’s job.