It is hard to sever the cords that tie us to our slavery and leave intact those that bind us to ourselves.

The materials of true poetry are always humble, absolutely idiosyncratic, the autobiographical tatters that, in gifted hands, are made into the memoir that fits us all.

Maybe being oneself is always an acquired taste.

Writing was the soul of everything else ... Wanting to be a writer was wanting to be a person.

We only store in memory images of value. To write about one's life is to live it twice, and the second time is both spiritual and historical.

A peculiarity of the American historical sensibility allows us to be proud of great-grandfathers (or even grandfathers) who lived in crushing poverty, while the poverty of a father is too close for comfort.

The world is full of mystery but it must not be choked with secrets: we must talk to one another.