“But that so many scholars are barbarians does not much matter so long as a few of them are ready to help with their specialized knowledge the few independent thinkers, that is to say the poets, who try to to keep civilization alive.”

“I was thinking, "So, I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now.”

“If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.”

“There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.”

“Marriage, like money, is still with us; and, like money, progressively devalued.”

“There should be two main objectives in ordinary prose writing: to convey a message and to include in it nothing that will distract the reader's attention or check his habitual pace of reading - he should feel that he is seated at ease in a taxi not riding a temperamental horse through traffic.”

“There's no money in poetry but then there's no poetry in money either.”

“I don't really feel my poems are mine at all. I didn't create them out of nothing. I owe them to my relations with other people.”

“A perfect poem is impossible. Once it has been written the world would end.”

“I love, therefore I am.”

“Poets can't march in protest or do that sort of thing. I feel that's against the rules, and pointless. If mankind wants a great big final bang, that's what it'll get. One should never protest against anything unless it's going to have an effect. None of those marches do. One should either be silent or go straight to the top.”