the only people worth writing about are those about whom the last word cannot be said.

I know some good marriages-marriages where both people are just trying to get through their days by helping each other, being good to each other.

the unconscious of an artist is her greatest treasure. It is what transmutes the dross of autobiography into the gold of myth.

The best slave does not need to be beaten. She beats herself.

There is this tendency to think that if you could only find the magic way, then you could become a poet. "Tell me how to become a poet. Tell me what to do." . . . What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you're a poet. But there isn't one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn't any formula for it.

Anybody who instantly goes from being a poet and a graduate student to being a public figure has to be in a state of shock. First people want to praise you, and then they want to attack you. No one can prepare you for it.

In loving life you love what can't survive.