In the end, like the Almighty Himself, we make everything in our image, for want of a more reliable model; our artifacts tell more about ourselves than our confessions.

I'm 100 percent Jewish by blood, but by education I'm nothing. By affiliation I'm nothing.

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.

A poet is a combination of an instrument and a human being in one person, with the former gradually taking over the latter. The sensation of this takeover is responsible for timbre; the realization of it, for destiny.

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

I don't believe in that country any longer. I'm not interested. I'm writing in the language, and I like the language.

When the eye fails to find beauty-alias solace-it commands the body to create it, or, failing that, adjusts itself to perceive virtue in ugliness.