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.

The poem is not a thing we see; it is, rather, a light by which we may see.

Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.

For what is a poem but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding: it is the deepest part of autobiography.

And what we students of history always learn is that the human being is a very complicated contraption and that they are not good or bad but are good and bad and the good comes out of the bad and the bad out of the good, and the devil take the hindmost.

They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren't any other people there wouldn't be any you because what you do, which is what you are, only has meaning in relation to other people.

A symbol serves to combine heart and intellect.