The poem is a cry of the unborn heart. Yes, because the poem perfectly embodies the world, there is no world without poem.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing - none of that is writing. Writing is writing. Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Facts are the images of history, just as images are the facts of fiction.

The images of things are not the things in themselves.

I am led to the proposition that there is no fiction or nonfiction as we commonly understand the distinction: there is only narrative.

We make a mistake to condescend to the past as if it were preparatory to our own time.