When I'm not writing or reading, I'm thinking about both.

Russian talk of political evil is as natural as eating.

The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

The moment that you place blame somewhere, you undermine your resolve to change anything.

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice. Failing this duty, he sinks into oblivion. Society, on the other hand, has no obligation toward the poet.

By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation, those of the politician, the salesman, or the charlatan. In other words, it forfeits its own evolutionary potential. For what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom is precisely the gift of speech. Poetry is not a form of entertainment and in a certain sense not even a form of art, but it is our anthropological, genetic goal. Our evolutionary, linguistic beacon.