This is how I recognize an authentic poet: by frequenting him, living a long time in the intimacy of his… — Emil Cioran
This is how I recognize an authentic poet: by frequenting him, living a long time in the intimacy of his work, something changes in myself, not so much my inclinations or my tastes as my very blood, as if a subtle disease had been injected to alter its course, its density and nature. To live around a true poet is to feel your blood run thin, to dream a paradise of anemia, and to hear, in your veins, the rustle of tears.
Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
More from this book
So long as man is protected by madness he functions and flourishes, but when he frees himself from the fruitful tyranny of fixed ideas, he is lost, ruined.
I find in myself as much evil as in anyone, but detesting action — mother of all vices — I am the cause of no one's suffering.
Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.
