Robert Graves

“Wakeful they lie.”

— Robert Graves

With eager dragon-eyes;

— Robert Graves

“You're all scum and you know it”

— Robert Graves

“As quick as boiled asparagus!”

— Robert Graves

I made no more protests. What was the use of struggling against fate

— Robert Graves

“I don't answer questions about conjectures.”

— Robert Graves

There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.

— Robert Graves

In love as in sport, the amateur status must be strictly maintained.

— Robert Graves

One smile relieves a heart that grieves.

— Robert Graves

To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.

— Robert Graves

Myths are seldom simple, and never irresponsible.

— Robert Graves

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

— Robert Graves

Children born of fairy stock Never need for shirt or frock, Never want for food or fire, Always get their heart's desire.

— Robert Graves

I was thinking, "So, I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books…

— Robert Graves

“Because the world is in a sick condition and we are all somehow infected, against our will, even if we think we…

— Robert Graves

Hate is a fear, and fear is rot That cankers root and fruit alike, Fight cleanly then, hate not, fear not, Strike…

— Robert Graves

You mean that people who continue virtuous in an old-fashioned way must inevitably suffer in times like these?

— Robert Graves

“You know how it is when one talks of liberty. Everything seems beautifully simple. One expects every gate to open and every…

— Robert Graves

As you are woman, so be lovely: As you are lovely, so be various, Merciful as constant, constant as various, So be…

— Robert Graves

A perfect poem is impossible. Once it had been written, the world would end. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

— Robert Graves

Poet, never chase the dream. Laugh yourself and turn away. Mask your hunger, let it seem Small matter if he come or…

— Robert Graves

She tells her love while half asleep, In the dark hours, With half-words whispered low: As Earth stirs in her winter sleep…

— Robert Graves

The poet's first rule must be never to bore his readers; and his best way of keeping this rule is never to…

— Robert Graves

“Nor had I any illusions about Algernon Charles Swinburne, who often used to stop my perambulator when he met it on Nurses’…

— Robert Graves

Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls Married impossible men? Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out, And missionary endeavour, nine times…

— Robert Graves

Patriotism, in the trenches, was too remote a sentiment, and at once rejected as fit only for civilians, or prisoners. A new…

— Robert Graves

If I were a young man With my bones full of marrow, Oh, if I were a bold young man Straight as…

— Robert Graves

If I thought that any poem of mine could have been written by anyone else, either a contemporary or a forerunner, I…

— Robert Graves

To know only one thing well is to have a barbaric mind: civilization implies the graceful relation of all varieties of experience…

— Robert Graves

“Once two clever Athenian policemen were pursuing a Theban thief towards the city boundaries when they came upon a sign: ‘The Sign…

— Robert Graves

Strawberries that in gardens grow Are plump and juicy fine, But sweeter far as wise men know Spring from the woodland vine.…

— Robert Graves

“Call it a good marriage - For no one ever questioned Her warmth, his masculinity, Their interlocking views; Except one stray graphologist…

— Robert Graves

Mythology is the study of whatever religious or heroic legends are so foreign to a student's experience that he cannot believe them…

— Robert Graves

Where nature with accustomed round Sweeps and garnishes the ground With kindly beauty, warm or cold Alternate seasons never old: Heathen, how…

— Robert Graves

“And what thoughts or memories, would you guess, were passing through my mind on this extraordinary occasion? Was I thinking of the…

— Robert Graves

“Poets can't march in protest or do that sort of thing. I feel that's against the rules, and pointless. If mankind wants…

— Robert Graves

And love went by upon the wind As though it had not been.

— Robert Graves

If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.

— Robert Graves

The gift of independence once granted cannot be lightly taken away again.

— Robert Graves

“This is a story of what I was, not what I am.”

— Robert Graves