“A grain of poetry suffices to season a century.”

“How much of twentieth-century poetry, how much of my own poetry, is the cry of the damned?”

“He who approaches the temple of the Muses without inspiration, in the belief that craftsmanship alone suffices, will remain a bungler and his presumptuous poetry will be obscured by the songs of the maniacs.”

“Remember there's always a grain of truth in the prophecies, no matter how much poetry has been frosted on top." ~ Lucas to Helen”

“In the nineteenth century, poetry was a bestselling genre rather than the cultish phenomenon it is now.”

“Something in one's heart takes fright, not at the thought of growing old, not at feeling one's youth used up in this mineral universe, but at the thought that far away the whole world is ageing. The trees have brought forth their fruit; the grain has ripened in the fields; the women have bloomed in their loveliness. But the season is advancing and one must make haste; but the season is advancing and still one cannot leave; but the season is advancing...and other men will glean the harvest.”