When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it's a wonderful way to spend one's life.

I stand in the mist and cry, thinking of myself standing in the mist and crying, and wondering if I will ever be able to use this experience in a book.

One writes not by will but by surrender.

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

we need poetry most at those moments when life astounds us with losses, gains, or celebrations. We need it most when we are most hurt, most happy, most downcast, most jubilant. Poetry is the language we speak in times of greatest need. And the fact that it is an endangered species in our culture tells us that we are in deep trouble.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood.