“
When you said in front of him [i.e. Caesar]: ‘Valerius has never quite made a poem which is equally successful throughout.’ Claudilla, don’t you know that just that is the terror of a poet? A few verses come right; the rest he must contrive. What, have I never made an entire poem? And in front of him!
Letter XXXVII, C. Valerius Catullus to Clodia, in The Ides of March, by Thornton Wilder.
