This suspension of one's own reality, this being entirely alone in a strange city (at times I wondered if I had lost the power of speech) is an enriching state for a writer. Then the written word ... takes on an intensity of its own. Nothing gets exteriorized or dissipated; all is concentrated within.

I feel often very close to the ecstasy and anguish which lie at the very heart of poetry - I am writing a lot.

Public education was not founded to give society what it wants. Quite the opposite.

a poet never feels useful.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

I feel more alive when I'm writing than I do at any other time--except maybe when I'm making love.

For of course one is never safe when in love. Growth is demanding and may seem dangerous, for there is loss as well as gain in growth. But why go on living if one has ceased to grow? And what more demanding atmosphere for growth than love in any form, than any relationship which can call out and requires of us our most secret and deepest selves?