[Short Talk on Sylvia Plath] Did you see her mother on television? She said plain, burned things. She said I thought it an excellent poem but it hurt me. She did not say jungle fear. She did not say jungle hatred wild jungle weeping chop it back chop it. She said self-government she said end of the road. She did not say humming in the middle of the air what you came for chop.

One of the principle qualities of pain is that it demands an explanation.

When I desire you a part of me is gone.

Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.

Sometimes I dream a sentence and write it down. It’s usually nonsense, but sometimes it seems a key to another world.

I do think I have an ability to record sensual and emotional facts and factoids, to construct a convincing surface of what life feels like, both physical life and emotional life.

The man has a theory. The woman has hipbones. Here comes Death.