The price of being oneself is so high and involves so much ruthlessness toward others (or what looks like ruthlessness in our duty-bound culture) that very few people can afford it.

What we have not has made us what we are. / ... / What we are not drives us to consummation.

How slowly one comes to understand anything!

True gardeners cannot bear a glove Between the sure touch and the tender root.

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

Poetry is a dangerous profession between conflict and resolution, between feeling and thought, between becoming and being, between the ultra-personal and the universal - and these balances are shifting all the time.

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