To desire to write poems that endure-we undertake such a goal certain of two things: that in all likelihood we will fail, and if we succeed we will never know it

Mere literary talent is common; what is rare is endurance, the continuing desire to work hard at writing.

Each year the big garden grew smaller and Jane - who grew flowers by choice, not corn or stringbeans - worked at the vegetables more than I did. Each winter I dreamed crops, dreamed marvels of canning . . . and each summer I largely failed. Shamefaced, I planted no garden at all.

Of course newspaper sportswriting is mostly terrible - and of course it is usually the best writing in the paper.

If work is no antidote to death, nor a denial of it, death is a powerful stimulus to work. Get done what you can.

Less is more, in prose as in architecture.

The pleasure we feel, reading a poem, is our assurance of its integrity.