“Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance... poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.”

“The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.”

“Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.”

“Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear. It doesn't matter whether the good writer wants to be useful, or whether the good wri...”

“And the good writer chooses his words for their 'meaning', but that meaning is not a a set, cut-off thing like the move of knight or pawn on a chess-board. It comes up with roots, with assoc...”

“Literature is news that stays news.”