I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

The end of art is peace.

I always believed that whatever had to be written would somehow get itself written.

But even so, none of the news of these world-spasms entered me as terror.

If poetry and the arts do anything, they can fortify your inner life, your inwardness.

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

Even if the last move did not succeed, the inner command says move again.