All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about.

I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.

I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.

And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.

Anybody who writes doesn't like to be misunderstood.

I only keep books that I like very much. Otherwise I'd throw them out.

When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me.