All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.

War is what happens when language fails.

'1984' is not a wonder tale. Not only could it happen, but it has happened, but under different names.

Being edited is like falling face down into a threshing machine.

If you want to be a writer, you should go into the largest library you can find and stand there contemplating the books that have been written. Then you should ask yourself, 'Do I really have anything to add?' If you have the arrogance or the humility to say yes, you will know you have the vocation.

I suppose these deadlines we set for ourselves are really a way of saying we appreciate time, and want to use all of it.

making final judgements about poets, cities or regions on the basis of an anthology is always dangerous: anthologies are mirages created, finally, by their editors.