For [W. B.] Yeats magic was not so much a kind of poetry as poetry a kind of magic, and the object of both alike was evocation of energies and knowledge from beyond normal consciousness.

I've read all the books but one Only remains sacred: this Volume of wonders, open Always before my eyes.

Meanings, moods, the whole scale of our inner experience, finds in nature the 'correspondences' through which we may know our boundless selves.

Intent on one great love, perfect, Requited and for ever, I missed love's everywhere Small presence, thousand-guised.

Chemistry dissolves the goddess in the alembic, Venus, the white queen, the universal matrix, Down to the molecular hexagons and carbon-chains.

... the poem reminds us of what we ourselves know, but did not know we knew; reminds us, above all, of what we are.

Of all the arts the living of a life is perhaps the greatest; to live every moment of life with the same imaginative commitment as the poet brings to a special field.

Nature is the common, universal language, understood by all.

I couldn't claim that I have never felt the urge to explore evil, but when you descend into hell you have to be very careful.

The work of the artist is to heal the soul.

And see the peaceful trees extend their myriad leaves in leisured dance- they bear the weight of sky and cloud upon the fountain of their veins.

Using your mind is a faster method to getting what you want. I mean, all you have to do is sit there. What could be easier?

The most potent and sacred command which can be laid upon any artist is the command: wait.

Don't make someone burn, and then try to douse the flames with the things you should have done. Those regrets are gasoline not water.

The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards.

Circumstances alter faces.

I am a spy in the house of me. I report back from the front lines of the battle that is me. I am somewhat nonplused by the event that is my life.

I was hedging my bets by the time I got to college. I was interested in drama and journalism and psychology.

And now, I'm thinking again, isn't there something we can do about something we can't do anything about?

I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgment.

None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].