The poem . . . is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life.

In one deep sense, novels are concealed autobiography. I don't mean that you are telling facts about yourself, but you are trying to find out what you really think or who you are.

We are the prisoners of history. Or are we?

The poem . . . is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life.

Poets, we know, are terribly sensitive people, and in my observation one of the things they are most sensitive about is money.

It is human defect — to try to know oneself by the self of another.

Storytelling and copulation are the two chief forms of amusement in the South. They're inexpensive and easy to procure.