Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.

When Thomas Mann arrived in California from Germany, they asked him about German literature. And he said, 'German literature is where I am.' It's really a bit grand, but if a German can afford it, I can afford it.

...in the business of writing what one accumulates is not expertise but uncertainties. Which is but another name for craft.

I don't have principles. I have nerves.

Poetry is what is gained in translation.

A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.

Persecution mania is still around. In your writing, in your exchanges with people, meeting people who are in Russian affairs, Russian literature, etcetera.