To confront death, in any guise, is to identify with the victim and face what is unsettling and sobering
Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.
A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, i...
As everyone knows, there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying
The sea answers all questions, and always in the same way; for when you read in the papers the interminable discussions and the bickering and the prognostications and the turmoil, the disagreements an...
I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.
A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.
Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds. In the fields, around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp - everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs.
I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated...
Writing is both mask and unveiling.
Remember that writing is translation, and the opus to be translated is yourself.
I'm really too young to go out into the world alone," he thought as he lay down.
Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.
The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to review it.
The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines.
new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.
The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything
All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to e...
It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when conditi...