We name one thing and then another. That’s how time enters poetry. Space, on the other hand, comes into being through the attention we pay to each word. The more intense our attention, the more space, and there’s a lot of space inside words.

Only poetry can measure the distance between ourselves and the Other.

To submit to chance is to reveal the self and its obsessions.

If the sky falls they shall have clouds for supper.

Roberto Calasso's survey of the renewed interest in myth demonstrates how decisive the gods' influence was on modern literature. Calasso is not only immensely learned; he is one of the most original thinkers and writers we have today.

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships.

The poem I want to write is impossible. A stone that floats.