When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which is to be barely known at all..

The only way out is the way through, just as you cannot escape death except by dying. Being unable to write, you must examine in writing this being u….

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent narrative or argument that the reader can follow..

Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?.

I liked the kid who wrote me that he had to do a term paper on a modern poet and he was doing me because, though they say you have to read poems twic….

It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a third of their bulk appears above the surface of the page..

I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem..

For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is work, the novel is conscientious application why, the novel is practical….

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree..

Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it..

A lot happens by accident in poetry..

Why are stamps adorned with kings and presidents? That we may lick their hinder parts and thump their heads..

Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed..

Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will o….

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time..

Both poet and painter want to reach the silence behind the language, the silence within the language. Both painter and poet want their work to shine ….

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even..

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out a case..

A chronicle is very different from history proper..

I am not at all clear what free verse is anymore. That's one of the things you learn not to know..

Language is remarkable, except under the extreme constraints of mathematics and logic, it never can talk only about what it's supposed to talk about ….