I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent narrative or argument that the reader can follow.

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out a case.

We think about sex obsessively except during the act, when our minds tend to wander.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves.

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes a long time before you notice.

Both poet and painter want to reach the silence behind the language, the silence within the language. Both painter and poet want their work to shine not only in daylight but (by whatever illusionist magic) from within.

I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.