For the mind and the imagination, bookstores aren't enough, college courses aren't enough, the Internet isn't enough. Those resources are all governed by the tastes and needs of the moment. Only libraries take the long view, quietly shelving the unused with the used, knowing that one of these days the two categories will be reversed by a student's discovery of those hitherto undisturbed volumes whose contents will unsettle the learned world.

Twentieth-century American poetry has been one of the glories of modern literature.

If you like the precision and concision of poetry, a page of prose is unsatisfying in a certain way. And poetry is so direct.

A poem needs imaginative rhythms as well as imaginative transformation of content.

You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.

Each poem leads you to the questions it makes sense to ask it.

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. Hes very original, very accurate and acute.