The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.

I am an anarchist in politics and an impressionist in art as well as a symbolist in literature. Not that I understand what these terms mean, but I take them to be all merely synonyms of pessimist.

A book has got smell. A new book smells great. An old book smells even better. An old book smells like ancient Egypt.

I’ve loved reading all my life.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. The majestic crowns approaching one another make a glorious canopy, through the feathery arches of which the sunbeams pour, silvering the needles and gilding the stately columns and the ground into a scene of enchantment.

I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

Like many modern poets, I tend to conceal rhymes by placing them in the middle of lines, and to avoid immediate alliteration and assonance in favor of echoes placed later in the poems.

Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo’s sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey’s angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.

Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.

I’m getting a wrinkle above my eyebrow because I just can’t stop lifting it, and I love that you know.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes‘ palaces.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

I was a chemistry major, but I’m always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I’ve brought scientific thinking to literature. There’s been very little gratitude for this.

It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

My belief is that we were put into this world of wonders and beauty with a special ability to appreciate them, in some cases to have the fun of taking a hand in developing them, and also in being able to help other people instead of overreaching them and, through it all, to enjoy life – that is, to be happy.

A home without books is a body without soul.

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.

I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn’t until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing prose. While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels; I liked them.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

I write some country music. There’s a song called ‚I Hope You Dance.‘ Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it.

The proper study of mankind is books.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

I want the concentration and the romance, and the worlds all glued together, fused, glowing: have no time to waste any more on prose.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

I like to feel blonde all over.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.

It was morning; through the high window I saw the pure, bright blue of the sky as it hovered cheerfully over the long roofs of the neighboring houses. It too seemed full of joy, as if it had special plans, and had put on its finest clothes for the occasion.

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

The loss of life will be irreplaceable.

The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror – not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.

I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

I used to take my short stories to girls‘ homes and read them to them. Can you imagine the reaction reading a short story to a girl instead of pawing her?

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

Speculative fiction encompasses that which we could actually do. Sci-fi is that which we’re probably not going to see.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

The first book I ever really read was Plato’s ‚Republic,‘ and then I had to go over that five times or something.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.