A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

I am assured at any rate Man's practically inexterminate. Someday I must go into that. There's always been an Ararat Where someone someone else begat To start the world all over at.

Humor is the most engaging cowardice.

Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made him rich.

My definition of poetry (if I were forced to give one) would be this: words that have become deeds.

I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.

Fortunately, we don't need to know how bad an age is. There is something we can always be doing without reference to how good or bad the age is.