Afraid lest he be caught up in a net of words, tripped up, bewildered and so defeated-thrown aside-a man hesitates to write down his innermost convictions.

It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.

The beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.

The job of the poet is to use language effectively, his own language, the only language which is to him authentic.

The weight of love Has buoyed me up Till my head Knocks against the sky.

As birds' wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight.

It is not fair to be old, to put on a brown sweater.

There is nothing beginning nor end to the imagination but it delights in its own seasons reversing the usual order at will.

My first poem was a bolt from the blue … it broke a spell of disillusion and suicidal despondence. ... it filled me with soul satisfying joy.

Somewhere the sense makes copper roses steel roses — The rose carried weight of love but love is at an end — of roses It is at the edge of the petal that love waits.

Don't constantly make angry your wife. Once she throws you out of her heart, there is no appeal

As long as you’re breathing, your story’s still going.

Life is all about living it and loving it”.

There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.

The mind's job is to validate what it thinks.

I regard it as a waste of time to think only of selling: one forgets one's art and exaggerates one's value.

It could truly be the case that Vladimir Putin has miscalculated in the long term with his adventure in Syria.

Don't ask people to do something you wouldn't.

Marriage doesn't just happen! It takes a solid set of decisions, a huge amount of skill and enormous willpower.

Now that their long war was over, they could get on with the proper concern of all civilised nations, which is to prepare for the next one.