Quotes from Robert Graves

One gets to the heart of the matter by a series of experiences in the same pattern, but in different colors.

Genius not only diagnoses the situation but supplies the answers.

Kaisers and Czars will strut the stage Once more with pomp and greed and rage; Courtly ministers will stop At home and fight to the last drop; By the million men will die In some new horrible agony.

Never use the word 'audience.' The very idea of a public, unless the poet is writing for money, seems wrong to me. Poets don't have an 'audience'. They're talking to a single person all the time.

There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money.

If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.

Patriotism, in the trenches, was too remote a sentiment, and at once rejected as fit only for civilians, or prisoners. A new arrival who talked patriotism would soon be told to cut it out.

Take your delight in momentariness, Walk between dark and dark a shining space With the grave 's narrowness, though not its peace.

This seems to me a philosophical question, and therefore irrelevant, question. A poet's destiny is to love.

A perfect poem is impossible. Once it had been written, the world would end. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.

Nine-tenths of English poetic literature is the result either of vulgar careerism or of a poet trying to keep his hand in. Most poets are dead by their late twenties.

There's no money in poetry but then there's no poetry in money either.

There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.

The gift of independence once granted cannot be lightly taken away again.

Faults in English prose derive not so much from lack of knowledge, intelligence or art as from lack of thought, patience or goodwill.

Anthropologists are a connecting link between poets and scientists; though their field-work among primitive peoples has often made them forget the language of science.

A well-chosen anthology is a complete dispensary of medicine for the more common mental disorders, and may be used as much for prevention as cure.

One smile relieves a heart that grieves.

To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

As you are woman, so be lovely:As you are lovely, so be various,Merciful as constant, constant as various,So be mine, as I yours for ever.

Cherries of the night are riper Than the cherries pluckt at noon... In the cherry pluckt at night, With the dew of summer swelling, There's a juice of pure delight, Cool, dark, sweet, divinely smelling...