Just as a good man forgets his deed the moment he has done it, a genuine writer forgets a work as soon as he has completed it and starts to think about the next one; if he thinks about his past work at all, he is more likely to remember its faults than its virtues. Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.
Auden
Auden: September 1939
Auden’s “September 1939” as it first appeared in the October 18, 1939 issue of The New Republic. (Click image to view full size. Source.)
Auden: Murder is unique
Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
W.H. Auden, “The Guilty Vicarage” (via)