“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.”

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”

“The only demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works.”