It is clear that we do not exactly choose our poems; our poems choose us.

I find that when I have any appointment, even an afternoon one, it changes the whole quality of time. I feel overcharged. There is no space for what wells up from the subconscious; those dreams and images live in deep still water and simply submerge when the day gets scattered.

When addressed, a Gentleman Cat does not move a muscle. He looks as if he hasn't heard.

How slowly one comes to understand anything!

It is always hard to hear the buried truth from another person.

Innocence is not pure so much as pleased, Always expectant, bright-eyed, self-enclosed

... the reason why there are so few first-class poets is that many people have intense feelings or first-class minds but to get the two together so that you will be willing to put a poem through sixty drafts, to be that self-critical, to keep breaking it down, that is what is rare. Right now most poetry is just self-indulgence.