"Poetry Is a Kind of Unconscious Autobiography" in The New York Times (12 May 1985)
“The best parts of this book grow out of poems and song lyrics.”
Comment on the scene in which Baoyu meets Hsiao-hung for the second time in chapter 25, as reported and quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), footnote on p. 168
“Distrust grows out of lies. Wrong-doing grows out of distrust. Tragedy grows out of wrong-doing.”
The Wheel of Fortune (1984), Part 3: John
Context: Distrust grows out of lies. Wrong-doing grows out of distrust. Tragedy grows out of wrong-doing. But out of honesty grows love and love's so powerful, it'll be like a suit of armour, protecting Robert, protecting you.
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
Quoted in Herbert V. Prochnow (1955), Speaker's Book of Epigrams and Witticisms
Misattributed
“Wherever life can grow, it will.
It will sprout out,
and do the best it can.”
"Song of Winnie"
Winnie (1988)
Context: My Poem is life, and not finished.
It shall never be finished.
My Poem is life, and can grow.
Wherever life can grow, it will.
It will sprout out,
and do the best it can.
I give you what I have.
You don’t get all your questions answered in this world.
How many answers shall be found
in the developing world of my Poem?
I don’t know. Nevertheless I put my Poem,
which is my life, into your hands, where it will do the best it can.
“He kept growing. He thought it was very important to keep growing all your life.”
Source: Outlaw Journalist (2008), Chapter 18, Man of Letters, p. 346
Source: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Source: The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927), p. 156.
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