All the arts, to varying degrees, involve some kind of a compromise. This being so, how far need the radio dramatist go to meet the public without losing sight of himself and his own standards of value? Louis MacNeice Read Quote
Nationalism of the Irish type is often regarded as reactionary. With the World Revolution and the Classless Society waiting for the midwife, why take a torch to the stable to assist at the birth of a puppy? Even if the puppy is pedigree. On this question I am unable to make up my mind. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
We are all fed from hundreds and thousands of hands. Often we do not know whose they are nor how they work. Only a few of us ever visualize the hands that grope in the coal mines or push levers in the mills or handle axes in the lumber camp. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
The poet is primarily a spokesman, making statements or incantations on behalf of himself or others – usually for both, for it is difficult to speak for oneself without speaking for others or to speak for others without speaking for oneself. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
It is a retrogression when human beings begin to insist on uniform, on one-mindedness, on conditioning their offspring so that all their reactions are automatic. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
Democracy – or any improvement on it – will rest on the layman’s right to criticize. His criticism will be often – very often – damn silly, but if, like Plato and the Fascists, we take away his right to criticize, we take away his right to appreciate. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
The poet has no greater number of muscles than the ordinary conversationalist; he merely has more highly developed muscles and better coordination. And he practises his activity according to a stricter set of rules. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
I am not yet born; O fill me with strength against those who would freeze my humanity. Louis MacNeice Read Quote
