Poetry for me is as much a spiritual practice as sexual ecstasy is.

My films are an extension of my poetry, using the white screen like the white page to be filled with images.

I tried to stir the imagination and enthusiasms of students to take risks, to do what they were most afraid of doing, to widen their horizons of action.

Some artists shrink from self-awareness, fearing that it will destroy their unique gifts and even their desire to create. The truth of the matter is quite opposite.

Most poets, like most people, try hard to be like someone they admire or they are possessed with an image of what they ought to be.

A born poet knows in his cradle that a poetic life is the only life worth living.

Ultimately I have learned more about poetry, from music and magic than from literature.