I'm fortunate in being able to find great satisfaction in my work.

I am apt to be harsh in my secret judgments of others, seeing them as defective because they are not enough like me.

Indeed, at times it's best to shut up.

I really do like to write and when I'm not, I think, "Okay, I'll be a good citizen now" but fact is, that's secondary.

Until people see poetry as springing from all of life, they will isolate it in a creativity corner and treat it like a mascot.

... I vowed that I would always respect the right of an individual to kill himself. Whether suicide was a moral or immoral act I no longer felt sure, but of the dignity of its intransigence I was convinced.

A personal essay often includes some or a lot of personal confession. That makes the reader feel less lonely in their confusion and darkness.