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.

How slowly one comes to understand anything!

The beginner hugs his infant poem to him and does not want it to grow up. But you may have to break your poem to remake it.

I have written every poem, every novel, for the same purpose-to find out what I think, to know where I stand.

Do I think there's life after death? No, I think my books are my life after death.

I know you have much to bear with in me, and I really do sometimes in you, but I have never looked at friendship in a deep sense as easy or entirely comfortable.

Don't forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius. Think of the capacity to learn! The freshness, the temperament, the will of a baby a few months old!