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If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
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Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.
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Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
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Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art.
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Few can remember clearly when innocence came to a sudden end, the moment at which we ask for the first time: Am I loved?
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O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed.
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Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
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Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.
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No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.
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Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores.
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Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
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Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear.
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We are all here on earth to help others.
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To ask the hard question is simple.
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You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.
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Lovers have lived so long with giants and elves, they won't believe again in their own size.
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Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.
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The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it.
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Hunger allows no choice.
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In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.
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