Art is born of humiliation.

A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him.