Literature and Words

He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished.

A BOOK IS A FRAGILE CREATURE, IT SUFFERS THE WEAR OF TIME, IT FEARS RODENTS, THE ELEMENTS, CLUMSY HANDS.

IT IS WHAT YOU READ WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE TO THAT DETERMINES WHAT YOU WILL BE WHEN YOU CAN’T HELP IT.

To turn events into ideas is the function of literature.

Words are like leaves, some wither every year, And every year a younger race succeeds.

We suffer from the malady of words, and have no trust in any feeling that is not stamped with its special word.

The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it.

A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

Books are the liberated spirits of men.

The greatest possible mint of style is to make the words absolutely disappear into the thought.

The greatest thing in style is to have command of metaphor.

Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication.

I know everything. One has to, to write decently.

Ek gret effect men write in place lite; Th’ entente is al, and nat the lettres space.

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.

Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good.

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as, warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto’s cheek.

For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope.

All poetry is difficult to read, —The sense of it is, anyhow.

The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease.

We poets are (upon a poet’s word) Of all mankind the creatures most absurd: The season when to come, and when to go, To sing, or cease to sing, we never know.

The poetry of speech.