Whenever a people or an institution forget its hard beginnings, it is beginning to decay.

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.

One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.

Poetry is a sky dark with a wild-duck migration.

There are dreams stronger than death. Men and women die holding these dreams.

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.

I took to wearing a black tie known as the Ascot, with long drooping ends. I had seen pictures of painters, sculptors, poets, wearing this style of tie.