Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things - pg. 179

Never trust a poet, or anyone else in the arts, for that matter, who says, "Well, to be alive, to be in life, is more important than any poem." When they say this they are first of all insulting you, since they assume that they have discovered some profound idea, and secondly, they are apologizing - in an aggressive way - for the mediocrity of their productions.