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To hunt for symbols in a fairy tale is absolutely fatal.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
Author
Composer
Essayist
Librettist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Playwright
Poet
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University Teacher
Writer
Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Hunt
Hunts
Fatal
Tale
Symbols
Fairy
Tales
Absolutely

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All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him.
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Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.
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Adjectives are the potbelly of poetry.
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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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May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?
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There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, ''Did you get an erection?'' If the answer is ''Yes'' from a majority of the twelve, then the book is pornographic.
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Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done.
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Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.
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One of the troubles of our times is that we are all, I think, precocious as personalities and backward as characters.
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Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
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It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat than that he philosophize.
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But once in a while the odd thing happens Once in a while the dream comes true And the whole pattern of life is altered Once in a while, the moon turns blue
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The most exciting rhythms seem unexpected and complex, the most beautiful melodies simple and inevitable.
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Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred without Science, we should always worship false gods.
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Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say
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Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible.
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Now the leaves are falling fast, Nurse's flowers will not last Nurses to their graves are gone, And the prams go rolling on.
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One cannot review a bad book without showing off.
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I don't get acting jobs because of my looks.
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All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.
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