Time the great destroyer of other men's happiness, only enlarges
the patrimony of literature to its possessor.

Time the great destroyer of other men's happiness, only enlarges
the patrimony of literature to its possessor.

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make read more

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid read more

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.

When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and read more

When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track.

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack read more

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack in an otherwise flawless stone. It is, quite spectacularly I think, art which is not based on the subjugation of one half of the species. It is art which will take the great human themes --love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself --and render them fully human. It may also, though perhaps our imaginations are so mutilated now that we are incapable even of the ambition, introduce a new theme, one as great and as rich as those others --should we call it "joy"?.

The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious read more

The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body.

Poetry is life distilled.

Poetry is life distilled.

I dare say I am compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as in past years I was read more

I dare say I am compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as in past years I was compelled to go to sea, voyage after voyage. Leaves must follow upon each other as leagues used to follow in the days gone by, on and on to the appointed end, which, being truth itself, is one -- one for all men and for all occupations.

The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)

The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)