An object, after all, is what makes infinity private.

I don't have principles. I have nerves.

Love itself is the most elitist of passions. It acquires its stereoscopic substance and perspective only in the context of culture, for it takes up more place in the mind than it does in bed. Outside of that setting it falls flat into one-dimensional fiction.

Poetry is not only the most concise way of conveying the human experience; it also offers the highest possible standards for any linguistic operation.

Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.

After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.

If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.