Those who speak largely of the human condition are usually those most exempt from its oppressions - whether of sex, race, or servitude.

The liar leads an existence of unutterable loneliness.

You have to give your art everything you can - I don't mean only writing, but studying other poets and poetics, thinking, reading what poets have written other than their poetry.

As a very young poet, I had been brought up on that dogma that politics was bad for poetry.

... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.

No one sleeps in this room without the dream of a common language.

We can count on so few people to go that hard way with us.