I am never long, even in the society of her I love, without yearning for the company of my lamp read more

I am never long, even in the society of her I love, without yearning for the company of my lamp and my library.

Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.

Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.

There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.

There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.

Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation.

Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation.

Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.

Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.

We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have read more

We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.

Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy.

Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy.

Republic of letters.

Republic of letters.

But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with theeCame not all hell broke loose? Is pain to themLess pain, less to be read more

But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with theeCame not all hell broke loose? Is pain to themLess pain, less to be fled, or thou than theyLess hardy to endure? Courageous chief,The first in flight from pain, hadst thou allegedTo thy deserted host this cause of flight,Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive. - Paradise Lost.