I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.

while the scientist sees everything that happens in one point of space, the poet feels everything that happens in one point of time.

IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: WHAT SCENES ONE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE FILMED Shakespeare in the part of the King's Ghost. The beheading of Louis the Sixteenth, the drums drowning his speech on the scaffold. Herman Melville at breakfast, feeling a sardine to his cat. Poe's wedding. Lewis Carroll's picnics. The Russians leaving Alaska, delighted with the deal. Shot of a seal applauding.

It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow.

Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him.

My characters are galley slaves.

Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words.