In the society that has replaced the paternalistic society, women are able to develop their independent and social energies much more. That is good.

When anyone seriously pursues an art - painting, poetry, sculpture, composing - over twenty or thirty years, the sustained discipline carries the artist down to the countryside of grief, and that descent, resisted so long proves invigorating. . . . As I've gotten older, I find I am able to be nourished more by sorrow and to distinguish it from depression.

People tend to take stories literally these days.

I think that poetry is important when you are shipwrecked, when the ordinary structures that hold you up are gone.

There are very few adults in our culture able to imagine any genuine life coming from the vertical plane - tradition, religion, or devotion.

Sociological prose can tell you everything, but it can't point out the grief.

The best presenters have conversations with their audiences.