44 quotes
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: "I refuse to be what I am."
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however "good" I may become, remains unchanged.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
To some degree every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as is apt to happen when these are abandoned, of race, but of age.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
The old lady, quoted by E. M. Forster — "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?"
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work "comes" to him.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
A vice in common can be the ground of a friendship but not a virtue in common. X and Y may be friends because they are both drunkards or womanizers but, if they are both sober and chaste, they are friends for some other reason.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
What the mass media offer is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. This is bad for everyone; the majority lose all genuine taste of their own, and the minority become cultural snobs.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Unfortunately for the modern dramatist, during the past century and a half the public realm has been less and less of a realm where human deeds are done, and more and more of a realm of mere human behavior. The contemporary dramatist has lost his natural subject.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of character; it is just as credible that a stupid person should sing beautifully as that a clever person should do so.
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)