... I simply don't want the poems mixed up with my life or opinions or picture or any other regrettable concomitants. I look like a bear and live in a cave; but you should worry.

of not wanting to write a preface for his first volume of verse, The Rage for the Lost Penny (1940); A Note on Poetry, p. 47 - Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)