“A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom-he fears a drunken poet may crack a joke that will take hold.”

“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.”

“There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer's time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of sustained creation—when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer's time isn't worth the paper he is not writing anything on.”

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”

“Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.”

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”

“[Writers] should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.”