they simply never understand, do they, that sometimes solitude is one of the most beautiful things on earth?

The role of the poet is almost nothing...drearily nothing. And when he steps outside of his boots and tries to get tough as our dear Ezra [Pound] did, he will get his pink little ass slapped.

Now something so sad has hold of us that the breath leaves and we can't even cry.

Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.

You can forgive a fool because he only runs in one direction and doesn't deceive anybody. It's the deceivers who make you feel bad.

Art is its own excuse, and it's either Art or it's something else. It's either a poem or a piece of cheese.

yes, Wagner and the storm intermix with the wine as nights like this run up my wrists and up into my head and back down into the gut