Base words are uttered only by the base And can for such at once be understood; But noble platitudes — ah, there's a case Where the most careful scru… - W. H. Auden

A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: “Whom do you write for?” The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.

When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.

Every day America's destroyed and re-created,
America is what you do,
America is I and you,
America is what you choose to make it.