“The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint.”

Valuing controlled intensity over unbridled display · Prose observations on expression

• Emotion
• Restraint
• Silence

“Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.”

Linking authenticity to the capacity to reach an audience · Essay or prose remarks on composition

• Authenticity
• Honesty
• Writing

“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.”

Insisting on rigorous self-judgment as the path to better work · Prose on writing and self-criticism

• Criticism
• Discipline
• Writing

“Omissions are not accidents.”

Affirming deliberate restraint as essential to artistic precision · Author's note, Complete Poems, 1967

• Poetry
• Precision
• Restraint

“Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”

Defining poetry as imaginative art grounded in the vivid realities of life · Statement on poetry, as commonly attributed

• Imagination
• Poetry
• Reality