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

As long as the state permits itself to interfere in the affairs of literature, literature has the right to interfere with the affairs of state.

I am quite prepared to die here [in NY]. It doesn't matter at all. I don't know better places, or perhaps if I do I am not prepared to make a move.

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.

As failures go, attempting to recall the past is like trying to grasp the meaning of existence. Both make one feel like a baby clutching at a basketball: one's palms keep sliding off.

In poetic thought, the role of the subconscious is played by euphony.

I always adhered to the idea that God is time, or at least that His spirit is.