A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

Evil is unspectacular and always human, And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.

One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

False enchantment can last a lifetime.

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.

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.