The creative person, the person who moves from an irrational source of power, has to face the fact that this power antagonizes. Under all the superficial praise of the creative is the desire to kill. It is the old war between the mystic and the nonmystic, a war to the death.

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.

We cannot afford not to fight for growth and understanding, even when it is painful, as it is bound to be.

The body is a universe in itself and must be held as sacred as anything in creation....It is dangerous to forget the body as sacramental.

There are some griefs so loud/They could bring down the sky/And there are griefs so still/None knows how deep they lie.

Being very rich as far as I am concerned is having a margin. The margin is being able to give.

Old age is not an illness, it is a timeless ascent. As power diminishes, we grow toward the light.