Land in the Mohave Desert.
Sing for the sun.
— Cold War Kids, “Audience”
If this book’s argument is correct, then the covert subject of most poetry for the last three centuries has been the anxiety of influence, each poet’s fear that no proper work remains for him to perform.
— Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence
We should acknowledge that the question of what is beautiful is both impossible to elucidate and shameful and even undemocratic to mention.
— Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
It’s a challenge for us to recover a sense of value.
— Michael Manfredi, Landform Building
There are no interpretations but only misinterpretations, and so all criticism is prose poetry.
— Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence