Robert Penn Warren

I think the greatest curse of American society has been the idea of an easy millennialism -- that some new drug, or the next election or the latest in social engineering will solve everything.

— Robert Penn Warren

For what is a poem, but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding. It is the deepest part of autobiography.

— Robert Penn Warren

More and more Emerson recedes grandly into history, as the future he predicted becomes a past.

— Robert Penn Warren

If, in the middle of World War II, a general could be writing a poem, then maybe I was not so irrelevant after all. Maybe the general was doing more for victory by writing a poem than he would be by commanding an army. At least, he might be doing less harm. By applying the same logic to my own condition [consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress], I decided that I might be relevant in what I called a negative way. I have clung to this concept ever sincenegative relevance. In moments of vain-glory I even entertain the possibility that if my concept were more widely accepted, the world might be a better place to live in. There are a lot of people who would make better citizens if they were content to be just negatively relevant.

— Robert Penn Warren