I think that in the process of writing, all kinds of unexpected things happen that shift the poet away from his plan and that these accidents are really what we mean when we talk about poetry.

There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.

The ellipse is as aimless as that, Stretching invisibly into the future so as to reappear In our present. Its flexing is its account, Return to the point of no return.

You stupefied me. We waxed, Carnivores, late and alight In the beaded winter. All was ominous, luminous.

Much that is beautiful must be discarded So that we may resemble a taller Impression of ourselves.

The first year was like icing. Then the cake started to show through.

I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them.

Reading is a pleasure, but to finish reading, to come to the blank space at the end, is also a pleasure.

The summer demands and takes away too much. /But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes

And so we turn the page over. To think of starting. This is all there is.

In the increasingly convincing darkness The words become palpable, like a fruit That is too beautiful to eat.

I would walk the way and accept the risks I have counted, rather accepting my failure.

Liberty is too precious to be buried in books. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say, 'I'm free'.

What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion.

There’s something about pleasure I find annoying.

If you believe in the Lord, He will do half the work - but the last half. He helps those who help themselves.

I'm sorry that I never trusted you. I don't know how to do that anymore.

While seeking out the dead, I see nothing but the living.

I always felt that the boiled potato, not the tudor rose, should be the national emblem.

White girls tell me Hey Nicki your camp rules! Is that why you get more head than shampoos?

I know that in my own work I'm able to do all kinds of things I never thought I'd be able to do.