I am the truth, since I am part of what is real, but neither more nor less than those around me.

— Wallace Stevens

I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections, Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling, Or just after.

— Wallace Stevens

I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendos The blackbird whistling Or just after.

— Wallace Stevens

If there must be a god in the house, must be, Saying things in the rooms and on the stair, Let him move as the sunlight moves on the floor, Or moonlight, silently, as Plato's foster Aristotle's skeleton. Let him hang outhit stars on the wall. He must dwell quietly.

— Wallace Stevens

I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms;But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.

— Wallace Stevens

In poetry, you must love the words the ideas and the images and rhythms with all your capacity to love anything at all.

— Wallace Stevens

In poetry, you must love the words, the ideas and the images and rhythms with all your capacity to love anything at all.

— Wallace Stevens

In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature.

— Wallace Stevens

Intolerance respecting other people's religion is toleration itself in comparison with intolerance respecting other people's art.

— Wallace Stevens

I placed a jar in Tennessee and round it was upon a hill.

— Wallace Stevens