Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.
Source: In The Observer, 'Sayings of the Year', 1974.
-- John Betjeman, (Apr 6 1906-1984), English poet, broadcaster, and writer on architecture; He was the English Poet Laureate, 1972-1984; nostalgic and wary of change, he preferred the countryside to the city, and was impassioned in his abhorrence of modern architecture.