There had been a time on earth when poets had been young and dead and famous — and were men. But now the poet as the tragic child of grandeur and destiny had changed. The child of genius was a woman, now, and the man was gone.

More from The Web and the Rock (1939)

• America…. It is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.
• America.... It is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time. Of Time and the River
• I believe that we are lost here in America, but I believe we shall be found. And this belief, which mounts now to the catharsis of knowledge and conviction, is for me-and I think for all of us-not only our own hope, but America’s everlasting, living dream.
• Making the world safe for hypocrisy.
• So, then, to every man his chance-to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity-to every man the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him-this, seeker, is the promise of America.
• There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves.