Although all poets aspire to be birds, no bird aspires to be a poet.

It is the first experience you ever had of reading a decent poem: 'Oh, somebody else is lonely, too!

Metaphor is not, and never has been, a mere literary term. It is an event.

I am convinced that the first lyric poem was written at night, and that the moon was witness to the event and that the event was witness to the moon. For me, the moon has always been the very embodiment of lyric poetry.

The words secret and sacred are siblings.

Now I will give you a piece of advice. I will tell you something that I absolutely believe you should do, and if you do not do it you will never be a witer. It is a certain truth. When your pencil is dull, sharpen it. And when your pencil is sharp, use it until it is dull again.

The origins of poetry are clearly rooted in obscurity, in secretiveness, in incantation, in spells that must at once invoke and protect, tell the secret and keep it.