Criticism should be a casual conversation.

It is, for example, axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction.

There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think that , as a rule, a poet should read them.

It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen.

The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own.

Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.

One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.