The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.

Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.

All theories are legitimate, no matter. What matters is what you do with them.

The heresies we should fear are those which can be confused with orthodoxy.

The central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry.

Why do you seem so annoyed at what I'm saying?" "Because we're too much like each other. I loathe your face, which is a caricature of mine, I loathe your voice, which is a mockery of mine, I loathe your pathetic syntax, which is my own.

We have stopped believing in progress. What progress that is !