Writing is rewriting what you have rewritten.

All poetry is an ordered voice, one which tries to tell you about a vision in the un-visionary language of farm, city, and love.

For my Oxford degree, I had to translate French and German philosophy (as it turned out, Descartes and Kant) at sight without a dictionary. That meant Germany for my first summer vacation, to learn the thorny language on my own.

Our small ears never had such a workout as on the Fourth of July, hearing not only our own bursting crackers but also those of our friends, and often the boom of homemade cannon shot off by daring boys of 16 years, ready to lose a hand if it blew up.

Has the painter not always gone to an art school, or at least to an established master, for instruction? And the composer, the sculptor, the architect? Then why not the writer? Good poets, like good hybrid corn, are both born and made.

Human life is too difficult for people.

To eat in the same room where food is cooked - that is the way to thank the Lord for His abundance.