Truth never penetrates an unwilling mind.

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

I would rather like to think of God as being a kind of adventurer - even as Wells thought about him - or perhaps as something within us making for some unknown purpose.

A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or rather the poetry behind the words, for the words themselves are mere symbols—spring to life, and we have a resurrection of the word.

Literature is not exhaustible, for the sufficient and simple reason that a single book is not.

I suppose identity depends on memory. And if my memory is blotted out, then I wonder if I exist - I mean, if I am the same person. Of course, I don't have to solve that problem. It's up to God, if any.

I believe that in time we will have reached the point where we will deserve to be free of government.