“A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”
Squares and Oblongs, in Poets at Work (1948), p. 170
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W. H. Auden 122
Anglo-American poet 1907–1973Related quotes
“A poet must have died as a man before he is worth anything as a poet”
“A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else can be only a footnote.”
Andrew R. MacAndrew (trans.) A Precocious Autobiography (1963; repr. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965) p. 7.
“God loves only those who are not concerned with anything else.”
Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 80
“A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.”
“Makes the Whole World Kin,” Sixes and Sevens (1911)
“I'm no novelist. Or anything else, I suppose, except, just possibly a poet, once in a while.”
Scannell's diary entry - 28 December 1966 James Andrew Taylor - Walking Wounded: The Life and poetry of Vernon Scannell O U P 2013 ISBN 9780199603183
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
As quoted in Sophia's Fire (2005) by Sango Mbella, p. 133.
“Passion looks like anger to people who aren’t passionate about anything.”