The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.

In fact, in lyric poetry, truthfulness becomes recognizable as a ring of truth within the medium itself.

Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.

There is not built-in meaning to anything, we are free to add any meaning we choose to give it.

When I first encountered the name of the city of Stockholm, I little thought that I would ever visit it, never mind end up being welcomed to it as a guest of the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Foundation.

The next move is always the test.

Harvard created wonderful conditions for me as a writerbut the writing was done, almost entirely, when I got home.