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

Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.

I saw that worrying had come to nothing and gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.

it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.

...there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do -- determined to save the only life you could save.

I have trouble with some books because I'm so much in agreement with them I'd rather just sit in the grass myself.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.