“Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.”

Defining poetry through metaphor, implication and meanings that extend beyond literal statement · Lecture, Education by Poetry, 1930

• Language
• Metaphor
• Poetry

“Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes all the pressure off the second.”

Suggesting humorously that excessive conversation can dissipate the energy that might otherwise become writing · Remark quoted in Vogue, 15 March 1963

• Communication
• Humour
• Writing

“There are a lot of good things I believe in, but for the life of me I can't always enumerate them at a moment's notice.”

A characteristically wry admission that deeply held convictions need not form a tidy creed · Letter to Alfred Harcourt, 1917

• Belief
• Humour
• Mind