So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould.

Poets lose half the praise they should have got, Could it be known what they discreetly blot.

Give us enough but with a sparing hand.

A narrow compass! and yet there Dwelt all that 's good, and all that 's fair; Give me but what this riband bound, Take all the rest the sun goes round.

Go, lovely rose! Tell her that wastes her time and me That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be.

His love at once and dread instruct our thought; As man He suffer'd and as God He taught.

Others may use the ocean as their road; Only the English make it their abode.

The lark that shuns on lofty boughs to build, Her humble nest, lies silent in the field.

So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould.

Poets that lasting marble seek Must come in Latin or in Greek.

The fear of hell, or aiming to be blest, savors too much of private interest.

Vexed sailors cursed the rain, for which poor shepherds prayed in vain.

Could we forbear dispute, and practise love, We should agree as angels do above.

Stronger by weakness, wiser men become.

Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new.

How small a part of time they share, That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse, And every conqueror creates a muse.

Circle are praised, not that abound, In largeness, but the exactly round.

The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; So calm are we when passions are no more!

To love is to believe, to hope, to know; Tis an essay, a taste of Heaven below!

And as pale sickness does invade, Your frailer part, the breaches made, In that fair lodging still more clear, Make the bright guest, your soul, appear.

Tea does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade, And keeps that palace of the soul serene.

All human things Of dearest value hang on slender strings.

Circle are praised not that abound In largeness but the exactly round.

Arnold Bennett was a writer I admired. He was actually taking notes at his father's deathbed.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.

For a country to have a great writer is like having another government. That's why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

A writer may tell me that he thinks man will ultimately become an ostrich. I cannot properly contradict him.

The most important training, though, is to experience life as a writer, questioning everything, inventing multiple explanations for everything. If you do that, all the other things will come; if you don't, there's no hope for you.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

Every sentence has a truth waiting at the end of it and the writer learns how to know it when he finally gets there.

It's essential not to have an ideology, not to be a member of a political party. While the writer can have certain political views, he has to be careful not to have his hands tied.

I was never really a writer, I was always more of a performer.

Without books I would not have become a vivacious reader, and if you are not a reader you are not a writer.

Well see, I'm a good enough writer that not everybody in my books talks exactly like I do.

So while it is true that I find really dark stuff funny sometimes, it's also true that as a writer of books I want to have the whole range of human emotions.

Here I am, where I ought to be. A writer must have a place where he or she feels this, a place to love and be irritated with.

Nowadays I'm not even sure if newspapers take into account whether a person is a good writer.

Remember Graham Green's dictum that childhood is the bank balance of the writer? I think that all writers feel alienated. Most of us go back to an alienated childhood in some way or another. I know that I do.

You know, Mamet is not a huge writer of female parts. Most of his movies don't even have women in them, so I'm lucky I'm in it at all.

A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.

In the theater, characters have to cut the umbilical cord from the writer and talk in their own voices.

I knew I wasn't a baseball writer. I was scared to death. I really was afraid to talk to players, and I didn't want to go into the press box because I thought I was faking it.

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.