Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at fifteen to write several novels.

It takes a long time for words to become thought.

When I am alone the flowers are really seen; I can pay attention to them. They are felt as presences. Without them I would die...they change before my eyes. They live and die in a few days; they keep me closely in touch with the process, with growth, and also with dying. I am floated on their moments.

For any writer who wants to keep a journal, be alive to everything, not just to what you're feeling, but also to your pets, to flowers, to what you're reading.

... if one does not have wild dreams of achievement, there is no spur even to get the dishes washed. One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

How slowly one comes to understand anything!

One could go on revising a prose page forever whereas there is a point in a poem when one knows it is done forever.