I feel the terror of idleness, like a red thirst. Death isn't just an idea.

I went to India and was quite taken with it. There's a feeling there that things are holy first and useful second. And in America, we have it backwards.

In my own work, I usually revise through forty or fifty drafts of a poem before I begin to feel content with it.

There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But who wants easier?

We can know a lot. And still, no doubt, there are rash and wonderful ideas brewing somewhere; there are many surprises yet to come.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

The sea is the most beautiful face in our universe.