A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos
It's very important that what you do is specific to the medium in which you're doing it, and that you utilise what is specific about that medium to do the work. And if you can't think about why it should be done this way, then it doesn't need to be done.
My delight in writing poetry is taking words out and throwing them away.
She dealt her pretty words like blades, As glittering they shone, And every one unbared a nerve Or wantoned with a bone.
Interviewer: What, then, would you say is the source of most of your work? Parker: Need of money, dear.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
Poetry: the best words in the best order.
Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.
Don't let your work and hope be other than great.
Someone says: 'Whom do you write for?' I reply: 'Do you read me?' If they say 'yes', I say, 'Do you like it?' If they say 'No,' then I say, 'I don't write for you'.