James Laughlin

“Publishing is a very dangerous business, a black art, a lottery.”

“My theory was that if you had a lot of good books on your list, you could afford to publish a few that you knew wouldn't sell.”

“What I've done is to make a vehicle for things that I thought were of literary value.”

“The simplest thing of all is the hardest thing to do.”

“I tried to publish the books I liked, and I hoped other people would like them too.”

“The poem is a little myth of personal experience.”

“In a poem, the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind.”