“If there were no girls like them in the world, there would be no poetry”

“If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.”

“I would like The Discovery of Poetry to be a field guide to the natural pleasures of language - a happiness we were born to have.”

“A world without poetry and art would be too much like one without birds or flowers: bearable but a lot less enjoyable.”

“it’s not necessarily helpful to talk about poetry as if it were a device to be assembled or a religious experience to be undergone. Rather, it would be useful to talk about poetry as if it were, for example, Belgium”

“Not out of them are the shows of history erected: the world would be a grey, bloodless place were it composed entirely of Miss Schlegels. But the world being what it is, perhaps they shine out in it like stars.”