"Here is the root of all romanticism: that man, the individual, is an infinite reservoir of possibilities; and if you can so rearrange society by the destruction of oppressive order then these possibilities will have a chance and you will het Progress. One can define the classical quite clearly as the exact opposite to this. Man is an extraordinary fixed and limited animal whose nature is absolutely constant. It is only by tradition and organization that anything decent can be got out of him."

"A number of abstract ideas, of which we are as a matter of fact unconscious. We do not see them, but we see other things through them."

"It is a delicate & difficult art fitting rhythm to an idea...communicating momentary phases in a poet's mind."

"The artist tries to see what there is to be interested in... He has not created something, he has seen something."

"There were certain impressions I wanted to fix. I read verse models but none seemed to suitably express that kind of impression..until I came to read French vers libre which seemed to eactly fitr the case."

"A poem is good if it contains a new analogy and startles the reader out of the habit of treating words as counters."

"Old houses were scaffolding once and workmen whistling."

"The unit of significance in the poem is not the word but the phrase or sentence...a poet should consider the effect of the whole poem, not its local felicities."

"My objection to metre is that it enables people to write verse with no poetic inspiration."

"The prose writer drags meaning along with a rope, the poet makes it stand out and hit you."

"Literature, like memory, selects only the vivid patches."

"There is nothing to do but keep on."

"In the light of absolute values (religious or ethical) man himself is judged to be limited or imperfect, while he can occasionally accomplish acts which partake of perfection, he, himself can never be perfect."

"All emotions are the ore from which poetry may be sifted."

"there is a mushroom cloud in the back garden i did i tried to bring in the cat but it simply came to pieces in my hand i did i tried to whitewash the windows but there weren't any"

"he thinks about his journey nearly done. One day he'll clock on and never clock off or clock off and never clock on"

"When you are posthumous it is cold and dark and that is why patriots are a bit nuts in the head"

"There's the moon trying to look romantic Moon's too old that's her trouble Aren't we all?"

"Wasn't a bad party really Except for the people"

"GUIN GUINN GUINNESS IS white bird lying unnoticed in a corner splattered feathers blood running merged with the neonsigns in a puddle GUINNESS IS GOOD GUINNESS IS GOOD FOR Masks Masks Masks Masks Masks GUINNESS IS GOOD FOR YOU"

"The general at the radar screen Rubbed his hands with glee, And grinning pressed the button And started world war three."

"Without you ghost ferries would cross the Mersey manned by skeleton crews"

"Prostitutes in the snow in Canning Street like strange erotic snowmen"

"The daughters of Albion taking the dawn ferry to tomorrow worrying about what happened worrying about what hasn't happened lacing up blue sneakers over brown ankles fastening up brown stockings to blue suspenderbelts"

"The general at the radar screen he should have got the sack But that wouldn't bring Three thousand million, seven hundred, and sixty-eight people back, Would it?"

"You will tell me you love me Tonight at noon."

"This is the morning that we burnt a cardboard hat"

"Tonight at noon Supermarkets will advertise 3d EXTRA on everything"

"Well I woke up this mornin' it was Christmas Day And the birds were singing the night away I saw my stocking lying on the chair Looked right to the bottom but you weren't there"

"When the busstopped suddenly to avoid damaging a mother and child in the road, the younglady in the greenhat sitting opposite was thrown across me, and not being one to miss an opportunity i started to makelove"

"Love is feeling cold in the back of vans Love is a fanclub with only two fans"

"… i stood up and said it was a pity that the world didn't nearly end every lunchtime and that we could always pretend. …"

"Artists who don't paint aren't artists."

"Before 1999, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas offered to get me exhibitions, but joining the Stuckists put a kaibosh on all that — because I wasn't prepared to be controlled. I agreed to co-found the Stuckists to be allowed to say what I wanted, and I left the Stuckists because I didn't really want to be in them in the first place."

"It has become an ongoing national joke."

"a seething, dyslexic, better-looking British Bukowski"

"Britain's greatest cultural asset"

"I loved moustaches. I used to draw myself with one. When I was 14, I was really into war and Van Gogh."

"When I was better known than her, she put my name in that tent. I was asked to do Celebrity Big Brother, but why should I? We live in an age where fame is not related to what you do."

"I am angry with him but I have compassion for him. The reason I can have a relationship with him is that I don’t see him as my father but as an individual. I’m glad I didn’t murder him that day. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I had."

"What, like Harpic?"

"I like being on the margins. You work better there."

"Bowie and McCartney arrived, and the biscuits and caviare started and I left immediately. I don’t like shouting across rooms, with people in shiny suits who look like used-car salesmen."

"Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!"

"De la Mare’s poetry represents some of the finest, beautifully crafted, classical verse of the twentieth century. It is truly tragic that his poems remain largely neglected, forgotten as the world passed them by."

"Never the least stir made the listeners, Though every word he spake Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house From the one man left awake: Aye, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone, And how the silence surged softly backward, When the plunging hoofs were gone."

"Who said "Peacock Pie"? The old king to the sparrow: Who said "Crops are ripe"? Rust to the harrow. Who said, "Ay, mum's the word"? Sexton to willow. Who said, "Green dusk for dream?" Moss for a pillow. Who said, "All Time’s delight Hath she for narrow bed; Life’s troubled bubble broken"?— That’s what I said."

""Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word," he said."