A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.

Human language is mythological and metaphorical by nature.

From beginning to end Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fame had taken the plot out of his own hands.

Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse.

Poetry makes nothing happen.

Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own.