". . .if a stranger in a train station asks me my occupation, I never answer `writer' for fear that he may go on to ask me what I write, and to answer`poetry' would embarrass us both, for we both know that nobody can earn a living simply by writing poetry. (The most satisfactory answer I have discovered, satisfactory because it withers curiosity, is to say Medieval Historian.)"
— Auden, "The Poet & the City"