2003-12-12 - 11:23 a.m.

"Literature is a zero-sum game. Poets never know their own worth, which is a comfort. (If can't know your own worth, you shouldn't worry about it. Get to work instead.) When I hear poets assert that their work will live forever, I want to pat them on the shoulder and tell them that they'll feel better tomorrow."

-Donald Hall, from the essay "Death as a Career Move,"

"...all artists 'stop living' in order to comment on living. Art is the suspension of life. You can't write a poem about tears in your eyes with tears in your eyes, the salt water would smudge the ink."

-Ned Rorem, "From a Diary 2000-2003," Both printed in Fall 2003 Paris Review.

Well said, Huzzah!