T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot OMwas an American-born British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and "one of the twentieth century's major poets". He moved to England in 1914 at age 25, settling, working and marrying there. He was eventually naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39, renouncing his American citizenship...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 September 1888
CountryUnited States of America
lasts firsts composing
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.
broken broken-images waste-land
For you know only a heap of broken images
healing past vitality
Tradition: how the vitality of the past enriches the life of the present.
memories ideas mind
As a rule, with me an unfinished [idea] is a thing that might as well be rubbed out. It's better, if there's something good in it that I might make use of elsewhere, to leave it at the back of my mind than on paper in a drawer. If I leave it in a drawer it remains the same thing but if it's in the memory it becomes transformed into something else.
art occupation ifs
If one has to earn a living, therefore, the safest occupation is that most remote from the arts.
body speak should
So I find words I never thought to speak In streets I never thought I should revisit When I left my body on a distant shore.
winter men broken
In spite of all the dishonour, the broken standards, the broken lives, The broken faith in one place or another, There was something left that was more than the tales Of old men on winter evenings.
hell figures always-alone
Hell is oneself, hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone.
ideas imagination produce
When forced to work within a strict framework, the imagination is taxed to its utmost and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom, the work is likely to sprawl.
writing editors editing
An editor should tell the author his writing is better than it is. Not a lot better, a little better.
respect library literature
Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature.
music thyme lasts
music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts.
feelings mind rooms
In a mind charged with an eager purpose and an unfinished vindictiveness, there is no room for new feelings.
running writing may
Writing every day is a way of keeping the engine running, and then something good may come out of it.