I work very deliberately, with a plan. But sometimes I come to a point that I planned as the end and it needs softening. Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep - it can't be done abruptly.

I want to write poems that are natural, luminous, deep, spare. I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world.

I do the same thing everyday. I go to work and paint. I try to turn out as many pictures as I can.

My belief of book writing is much the same as my belief as to shoemaking. The man who will work the hardest at it, and will work with the most honest purpose, will work the best.

The reverie we intend to study is poetic reverie. This is a reverie which poetry puts on the right track, the track an expanding consciousness follows. This reverie is written, or, at least, promises to be written. It is already facing the great universe of the blank page. Then images begin to compose and fall into place.

I consider writing practice a true Zen practice because it all comes back at you. You can't fool anyone because it's on the page.