Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.

Be yourself. Don't imitate other poets. You are as important as they are.

The civil rights situation is like a pregnancy. It will get worse, I believe, before it gets better. What the usual pregnancy comes to is a decent baby. That is what we all hope will be the end product of this stress. It is customary, at the end of a pregnancy, to have for your pains a decent baby.

She was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves.

The music is in minors.

When you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you're telling them that they're less than somebody else.

I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker. It has always been hard for me to say exactly what I mean in speech But if I have written a clumsiness, I may erase it.