Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

I think that one of the qualifications of artists should be a vow of celibacy. They should be confined to read more

I think that one of the qualifications of artists should be a vow of celibacy. They should be confined to ruining only their own lives.

You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.

You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.

Art is Man's nature. Nature is God's art.

Art is Man's nature. Nature is God's art.

But, indeed, we prefer books to pounds; and we love manuscripts
better than florins; and we prefer small pamphlets read more

But, indeed, we prefer books to pounds; and we love manuscripts
better than florins; and we prefer small pamphlets to war horses.

In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work read more

In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented.

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

Learning why one great book is just like every other great book is the key to understanding literature

Learning why one great book is just like every other great book is the key to understanding literature

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no read more

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice. Failing this duty, he sinks into oblivion. Society, on the other hand, has no obligation toward the poet. A majority by definition, society thinks of itself as having other options than reading verses, no matter how well written. Its failure to do so results in its sinking to that level of locution at which society falls easy prey to a demagogue or a tyrant. This is society's own equivalent of oblivion.