When I was very young, one of my favourite books was Captain's Courageous and I suppose one of the reasons I loved… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Perhaps I should have pointed out more often that without her (mother's) guidance and example I might have gone straight from short… — Clive James Copy Share Image
People should be stopped from writing poetry. There's far too much of it. And if they're any good, they'll go ahead anyways. — Clive James Copy Share Image
Mocking Hugh Hefner is easy to do, and in my mind should be made easier. — Clive James Copy Share Image
How much atonement is enough? The bombing must be allowed as at least part-payment: those of our young people who are concerned… — Clive James Copy Share Image
It's a big thing to call yourself a poet. All I can say is that I have always written poems. I don't… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Beyoncé and pathos are strangers. Amy Winehouse and pathos are flatmates, and you should see the kitchen. — Clive James Copy Share Image
My wife spoke perfect Italian and she was very beautiful and very suave Italian men were crowding around her, talking all the time and… — Clive James Copy Share Image
The streets, at least in this part of town, seemed impossibly clean in comparison to London. The public telephones were unvandalised. For a London… — Clive James Copy Share Image
In London there was no home cooking worthy of the name. When you were in funds you ate out. But only the people whose… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Generally it is our failures that civilize us. Triumph confirms us in our habits. — Clive James Copy Share Image
I try to be specific. One thought at a time. Clear. Articulate. And above all, memorable, if you can be. You'd like to write… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Pound had argued - and Eliot had helped him prove - that a poem could be sustained by memorable moments. Olson proved that it… — Clive James Copy Share Image
One way or another, all the poets of the thirties and forties reacted to Auden, either by rejecting him or trying to absorb him. — Clive James Copy Share Image
Little books are the things to write at my age, I've decided. Avoid the big ones, go for the little ones. — Clive James Copy Share Image
“Too many of my friends are dead, and others wrecked By various diseases of the intellect Or failing body. How am I still upright?… — clive james Copy Share Image
