It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back.
— Marianne Moore
The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint.
Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.
If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist.
Poetry is all nouns and verbs.
Superior people never make long visits.
In a poem the excitement has to maintain itself. I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.
Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.
If you will tell me why the fen appears impassable, I then will tell you why I think that I can cross it if I try.
Psychology which explains everything explains nothing, and we are still in doubt.
Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time.
My father used to say superior people never make long visits.
When one cannot appraise out of one's own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser.
A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.
Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.
I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.
You're not free until you've been made captive by supreme belief.
There never was a war that was not inward.
As contagion of sickness makes sickness, contagion of trust can make trust.
It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
We are suffering from too much sarcasm.
The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.
