To have a firm persuasion in our work - to feel that what we do is right for ourselves and good for the world at exactly the same time - is one of the great triumphs of human existence.

There's a fierce practicality and empiricism which the whole imaginative, lyrical aspect of poetry comes from.

You'll always love the person, if you're sensible. But you get a lot of people, especially in divorces and separations, doing a lot of damage to themselves, because they can't figure out that they actually still love this person, but not in their original way.

To seek out beauty in our work is to make a pilgrimage of our labors, to understand that the consummation of work lies not only in what we have done, but who we have become while accomplishing the task.

A good poem looks life straight in the face, unflinching, sincere, equal to revelation through loss or gain.

The severest test of work today, is not of our strategies, but of our imaginations and identities.

Shyness means you are in the hallway of a greater presence. You just don't know how to take the conversation another step. It's a lovely indication.