Poetry is that magic which consists in awakening sensations with the help of a combination of sounds ... that sorcery by which ideas are necessarily communicated to us, in a definite way, by words which nevertheless do not express them.

All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself.

In my books you have to concentrate, but I work hard to make it that, when you do, the rewards are quite high.

Doing what you do well is death. Your duty is to keep trying to do things that you don't do well, in the hope of learning.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

Perhaps all of life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it.

It's great people still care about books, and it's great you can still fashion a life from literature.