It is good for a professional to be reminded that his professionalism is only a husk, that the real person must remain an amateur, a lover of the work.

Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child's mind, they are not easily eradicated.

In the novel or the journal you get the journey. In a poem you get the arrival.

Nobody stays special when they're old, Anna. That's what we have to learn.

It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth, however hard.

when I am working I immediately feel hopeful.

Words are my passion / And out of them and me / I would create beauty.