The future is merely a shadow which blocks out the joys of the present and emphasizes the miseries of the past.

Since flesh can't stay, we pass the words along.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

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.

You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.

Women are not the richer sex. Women are not equal in society.

I think the Jews are an amazing group of people and their survival is amazing.