After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can't trust a person.
Evelyn WaughRead
There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.
Interpretation
Poetic ideas only exist when expressed through language; it is the utterance that gives them life.
Evelyn Waugh's quote underscores the importance of expression in poetry, suggesting that the essence of poetic thoughts is realized only through their articulation. It highlights that ideas in themselves have no value unless transformed into words, thus emphasizing the role of language as a medium to convey emotions, experiences, and insights creatively.
In practice
This quote could be used in a poetry workshop to inspire participants about the importance of their words.
After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can't trust a person.
It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
...she had regained what I thought she had lost forever, the magical sadness which had drawn me to her, the thwarted look that had seemed to say, "Surely I was made for some other purpose than this?
That was the change in her from ten years ago; that, indeed, was her reward, this haunting, magical sadness which spoke straight to the heart and struck silence; it was the completion of her beauty.
That's the public-school system all over. They may kick you out, but they never let you down.
I write from this tight third-person viewpoint, where each chapter is seen through the eyes of one individual character. When I'm writing that character, I become that character and identify with that character.
The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.
Art is too serious to be taken seriously.
The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.
Unlike sport, music is not about winning or keeping fit or promoting your town or school; it's about celebrating, to a level approaching ecstasy, the deepest human longings.
I've yet to meet somebody who said, 'Your stories are so revolting I couldn't read them.'
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