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Quote by Conrad Aiken

“I always hankered to be a composer - I was mad about music, though I never studied seriously, and can't read a note. But I learned to play the piano and became pretty skillful at improvisation, especially after a drop or two.”

Quote by Conrad Aiken

Author

Conrad Aiken (August 5, 1889 - August 17, 1973) was an American novelist and poet. Known for his unique literary style and profound exploration of the human psyche, Aiken's works often delve into themes of morality, philosophy, and the human condition. more

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“I really don't know enough about the structure of fiction.”

Knows Enough Fiction Structure

Author:Conrad Aiken

“I do believe in this evolution of consciousness as the only thing which we can embark on, or in fact, willy-nilly, are embarked on; and along with that will go the spiritual discoveries and, I feel, the inexhaustible wonder that one feels, that opens more and more the more you know. It's simply that this increasing knowledge constantly enlarges your kingdom and the capacity for admiring and loving the universe.”

Knows Feels Believe Facts Spiritual Universe Consciousness Wonder Evolution Discovery Capacity Kingdoms Admiring Increasing Knowledge

Author:Conrad Aiken

“As poetry is the highest speech of man, it can not only accept and contain, but in the end express best everything in the world, or in himself, that he discovers. It will absorb and transmute, as it always has done, and glorify, all that we can know. This has always been, and always will be, poetry's office.”

Knows Men World Ends Done Accepting Speech Office Highest Poetry Is Can Not Glorify

Author:Conrad Aiken

“I think it's very useful to be insulated from your surrounds, because it gives you your inviolate privacy, without pressures, so that you can just be yourself.”

Thinking Giving Pressure Being Yourself Privacy Surround Just Be Yourself

Author:Conrad Aiken

“The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.”

Action Past Records Rivers Gold Instruments Practicals Streams Sand Grain Knowledge Of The Past Truth Revealed

Book:Lectures on Modern History: Great Event

Source: Lectures on Modern History: Great Event

“I think that what's happening today, with all the young poets rushing from one college to another, lecturing at the drop of a hat and so on, is not too good; I think it might have a bad effect on a great many of the young poets. They - to quote Mark Twain - "swap juices" a little too much, so that they are in danger of losing their own identity and don't give themselves time enough in which to work out what's really of importance to them - they're too busy.”

Thinking Giving Littles Enough Might Today Young Too Much Effects Danger Identity College Poet Losing Happenings Importance Mark Busy Work Out Great Men Hats Juice Too Busy Rushing Lecturing

Author:Conrad Aiken

“I think we've come to a kind of splinter period in poetry. These tiny little bright fragments of observation - and not produced under sufficient pressure - some of it's very skillful, but I don't think there's anywhere a discernible major poet in the process of emerging; or if he is, I ain't seen him.”

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Author:Conrad Aiken

“I think there's an enormous lot of talent around, and somewhere amongst these I'm sure that something will emerge, given time.”

Thinking Given Talent Enormous

Author:Conrad Aiken

“I've tried it long ago, with hashish and peyote. Fascinating, yes, but no good, no. This, as we find in alcohol, is an escape from awareness, a cheat, a momentary substitution, and in the end a destruction of it.”

Long Ends Awareness Destruction Alcohol Fascinating Long Ago Cheat Momentary Substitution Hashish Peyote

Author:Conrad Aiken

“Every writer's got to pay some attention, I suppose, to what his critics say because theirs is a reflection of what the audience feels about his work.”

Feels Pay Attention Audience Reflection Critics

Author:Edward Albee