Best to say that once a poem is finished I trust it to make its way, and I trust readers will find their way to it and through it, if the thing has got itself rightly expressed.

The end of art is peace.

Wherever that man went, he went gratefully.

Part of my gradual education of myself has been to think that there is a deep relationship between the nature of the creature and the worth of the art.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.

Im a firm believer in learning by heart.