#p

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. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#been #believe #ever #fondly #granted

Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#ask #before #complain #consciences #examine

By the time the people asking the questions are ready for the answers, the people doing the work have lost track of the questions. ↗

— Norman Ralph Augustine

#asking #by the time #doing #lost #people

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#aristocracy #contemporary #every #fallen #feels

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at night, but do not enter into relations. But not for the novel. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#enter #good #hemingway #his #into

When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#company #curate #drawing #dukes #feel

When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#company #curate #dukes #feel #find

Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment. Cares I knew not, and cared naught about them. ↗

— John James Audubon

#cared #cares #drawing #every #fishing

If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do well for my family, although I must abandon my life to its success, and undergo many sad perplexities and perhaps never see again my own beloved America. ↗

— John James Audubon

#again #although #america #beloved #bodies

One day I caught four Dolphins, how much I have gazed at these beautiful creatures... as they changed their hue in twenty varieties of richest arrangement of tints. ↗

— John James Audubon

#beautiful #caught #changed #creatures #day