A book is a box brimming with incendiary material. The reader strikes the match.
Courage is the only Magic worth having.
Mediocre prose might be read as an escape, might be spoken on television by actors, or mouthed in movies. But mediocre poetry did not exist at all. If poetry wasn't good, it wasn't poetry. It was that simple.
Beware of the man who denounces psychiatrists; / he is afraid.
The worst thing about jealousy is how low it makes you reach.
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.