No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. — W. H. Auden
A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb. — W. H. Auden
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. — W. H. Auden
Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation — W. H. Auden
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. — W. H. Auden
In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be. — W. H. Auden
Every american poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders — W. H. Auden
Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a don quixote, the ego, and a sancho panza, the self. — W. H. Auden
Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do. — W. H. Auden