Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play.
Certain events such as love, or a national calamity, or May, bring pressure to bear on the individual, and if the pressure is strong enough, something in the form of verse is bound to be squeezed out.
Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren’t very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor… And since our race admires gallantry, the writer will deal with it where he finds it. He finds it in the struggling poor now.
Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.
All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.
A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly.