No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. I know people who read without hearing the sentence sounds and they were the fastest readers. Eye readers we call them. They get the meaning by glances. But they are bad readers because they miss the best part of what a good writer puts into his work.

A true sonnet goes eight lines and then takes a turn for better or worse and goes six or eight lines more.

If the writer does not cry, the reader does not cry.

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.

Some spirit to stand simply forth, Heroic in its nakedness, Against the uttermost of earth.

For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew.