R. S. Thomas

The furies are at home in the mirror; it is their address. Even the clearest water, if deep enough can drown. Never think to surprise them. Your face approaching ever so friendly is the white flag they ignore. There is no truce with the furies. A mirror's temperature is always zero. It is ice in the veins. It's camera is an x-ray. It is a chalice held out to you in silent communion, where gaspingly you partake of a shifting identity never your own.

Imaginative truth is the most immediate way of presenting ultimate reality to a human being... ultimate reality is what we call God.

A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes.

Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is sweet.

Poetry is that / which arrives at the intellect / by way of the heart.