I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.
Donald HallIf our goal is to write poetry, the only way we are likely to be any good is to try to be as great as the best.
Donald HallWhen we put words together - adjective with noun, noun with verb, verb with object - we start to talk to each other.
Donald HallGreat literature, if we read it well, opens us up to the world and makes us more sensitive to it, as if we acquired eyes that could see through things and ears that could hear smaller sounds.
Donald Hall