Then you develop a kind of critical sense about what you write. You can tell when something is good, but it would be just as good in somebody else's work too. You want to hold out for those things only you can say.

To be precise and reckless: that is the consummation devoutly to be wished.

I want a fever, in poetry: a fever, and tranquillity.

There are so many selves in everybody, and just to explore and exploit one is wrong, dead wrong, for the creative person.

The true feeling of sex is that of a deep intimacy, but above all of a deep complicity.

I want you to hear a new version of Dueling Banjos. Anyone else is welcome.

I once had the nerve to ask Picasso the question, 'What is art?' He answered, 'Art is a lie which makes us see the truth.