Don't try to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. — William Faulkner. American writer and novelist (1897–1962)
The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.
It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.