I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

No one wants to read poetry. You have to make it impossible for them to put the poem down — impossible for them to stop reading it, word after word. You have to keep them from closing the book.

The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

I had never read any of the mystics, because I have never felt called to read them. In reading, as in other things, I always attempt practical obedience. There is nothing more favorable to intellectual progress, for as far as possible I do not read anything except for that which I am hungry in the moment, when I am hungry for it, and then I do not read … I eat. God mercifully prevented me from reading the mystics, so that it would be evident to me that I had not fabricated this absolutely unexpected contact.

When I originally started writing, I expected that probably very few people would read my poetry because in those days people didn’t read poetry much anyway.

... if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems.

Not every poet is a great reader of his own work.

I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so.

The thing about Shakespeare is you can only read his books if someone is making you.

I never read. It prevents me from thinking.

How poet and public stared at each other with righteous indignation, till the poet said, “Since you won’t read me, I’ll make sure you can’t” — is one of the most complicated and interesting of stories.

I never read a book before reviewing it: it prejudices a man so.

...how poet and public stared at each other with righteous indignation, till the poet said, “Since you won’t read me, I’ll make sure you can’t” — is one of the most complicated and interesting of stories.

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.