Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places.

'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

I used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated.

One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear.