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

I came to the idea of how fine it would be to think of an encyclopedia of an actual world, and then of an encyclopedia, a very rigorous one of course, of an imaginary world, where everything should be linked.

I hardly know what I'm going to write - an article, a story, a poem in free verse - or in some regular form. I only know that when I have the first sentence. And when the first sentence makes a kind of pattern, then I find out the kind of rhythm I'm looking for.

My father gave me free run of his library. When I think of my boyhood, I think in terms of the books I read.

Reading is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual.

A writer should have another lifetime to see if he's appreciated.

All literature, is, finally autobiographical.