“Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.”

“I've given offense by saying I'd as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down.”

“I only hope that when I am free, as they are free to go in quest, of the knowledge beyond the bounds of life, it may not seem better to me to rest.”

“The objective idea is all I ever cared about. Most of my ideas occur in verse... To be too subjective with what an artist has managed to make objective is to come on him presumptuously and render ungraceful what he in pain of his life had faith he had made graceful.”

“Only where love and need are one,And the work is play for mortal stakesIs the deed ever truly doneFor Heaven and the future's sakes”

“Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes all the pressure off the second.”

“Modern poets talk against business, poor things, but all of us write for money. Beginners are subjected to trial by market.”