Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting. . . . Read it a hundred times; it will forever keep its freshness as a metal keeps its fragrance. It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.

I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems.

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

Any work of art must first of all tell a story.

A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.

Democracy is the best chance for the best people.

A turning point in modern history.