When you make a bet, you're saying something.

- Al Alvarez

The better the artist, the more vulnerable he seems to be.

- Al Alvarez

Despair, in short, seeks its own environment as surely as water finds its own level.

- Al Alvarez

In [The New Poetry] I had attacked the British poets' nervous preference for gentility above all else, and their avoidance of the uncomfortable, dest…

- Al Alvarez

Divorce transforms habit into drama.

- Al Alvarez

No man kills himself unless there is something wrong with his life.

- Al Alvarez

It is easy to smile at an insult and pretend it's funny when the person insulting you is hosing you with money.

- Al Alvarez

I absolutely don't believe in anything. Full stop. Including luck.

- Al Alvarez

Despite the hundreds of attempts, police terror and the concentration camps have proved to be more or less impossible subjects for the artist; since …

- Al Alvarez