The innocence of such children doesn't answer our deepest questions about this vale of tears to which we are condemned, but it helps to dispel them. That is the secret to family life.

Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.

I think what distresses me most in my life is that I have so many ideas I consider exciting ideas that I will never live to execute because it takes me so long to execute.

We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once it’s gone – its value is incontestable.

The cleaning is something I use as a reward if I get some work done. I go into a very happy state of mind when I'm vacuuming.

How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty?

Each genre exerts a considerable spell, as a kind of "form" to be filled, as a Shakespearean sonnet is filled.