Robert Graves Quotes

“There's no money in poetry, but there's no poetry in money, either.”
― 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 now.”
― Robert Graves, I, Claudius

“He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to boast about.”
― Robert Graves, I, Claudius

“What's remarkable about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.”
― Robert Graves

“Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“All forms of literature are dangerous; but in none is the danger more acute than in historical fiction...”
― John Julius Norwich

“Black drinks the sun and draws all colours into it.
I am bleached white, my truant love. Come back,
and stain me with the intensity of black.”
― Robert Graves, Love Respelt

“Conversations between persons who do not like one another's selves are always sterile.”
― Robert Graves, Seven Days in New Crete

“Graves called her [Lilith] Liberty, and him [Cassius Chaerea] - Lover of Liberty. Coincidence? I don't think so.”
― Anna Canić