For inside all the weakness of old age, the spirit, God knows, is as mercurial as it ever was.

When one's not writing poems - and I'm not at the moment - you wonder how you ever did it. It's like another country you can't reach.

There is a proper balance between not asking enough of oneself and asking or expecting too much.

Your poems will happen when no one is there.

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.

We have to believe that every person counts, counts as a creative force that can move mountains.

If I were to choose one single thing that that would restore Paris to the senses, it would be that strangely sweet, unhealthy smell of the Métro, so very unlike the dank cold or the stuffy heat of subways in New York.