“No one could honestly say that a musical makes sense.”

“Es gibt eine Menge phantastischer E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Figuren unter den Angestellten vorgerückteren Alters. Irgendwo sind sie steckengeblieben und erfüllen seitdem ununterbrochen banale Funktionen, die alles andere eher als unheimlich sind.”

“I keep such music in my brain No din this side of death can quell; Glory exulting over pain, And beauty, garlanded in hell.”

“Oh yes, I know the way to heaven was easy. We found the little kingdom of our passion that all can share who walk the road of lovers. In wild and secret happiness we stumbled; and gods and demons clamoured in our senses.”

“Does it matter?--losing your legs?...For people will always be kind,And you need not show that you mindWhen the others come in after footballTo gobble their muffins and eggs.Does it matter?--losing your sight?...There's such splendid work for the blind;And people will always be kind,As you sit on the terrace rememberingAnd turning your face to the light.Do they matter?--those dreams from the pit?...You can drink and forget and be glad,And people won't say that you're mad;For they'll know that you've fought for your country,And no one will worry a bit.”

“Who's this—alone with stone and sky?It's only my old dog and I—It's only him; it's only me;Alone with stone and grass and tree. What share we most—we two together?Smells, and awareness of the weather.What is it makes us more than dust?My trust in him; in me his trust.”

“I am banished from the patient men who fight.They smote my heart to pity, built my pride.Shoulder to aching shoulder, side by side,They trudged away from life's broad wealds of light.Their wrongs were mine; and ever in my sightThey went arrayed in honour. But they died,--Not one by one: and mutinous I criedTo those who sent them out into the night.The darkness tells how vainly I have strivenTo free them from the pit where they must dwellIn outcast gloom convulsed and jagged and rivenBy grappling guns. Love drove me to rebel.Love drives me back to grope with them through hell;And in their tortured eyes I stand forgiven.”