Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people...

You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people...

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most...

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most...

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons...

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons...

Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession

Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession

Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.

Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-Second Street Uncertain and afraid As the...

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-Second Street Uncertain and afraid As the...

We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons.

We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons.

A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.

A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it...

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it...

Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so...

Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so...

We must love one another or die.

We must love one another or die.

The word 'Intellectual' suggests straight away - A man who's untrue to his wife

The word 'Intellectual' suggests straight away - A man who's untrue to his wife

It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too...

It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too...

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of...

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of...

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of...

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of...

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his...

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his...

Healing, Papa would tell me, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing...

Healing, Papa would tell me, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing...