I am tired of the litany of months, September October I am tired of the way the seasons keep changing, mimicking the seasons of the flesh which are real and finite.

Poetry is not a code to be broken but a way of seeing with the eyes shut.

I made a list of things I have to remember and a list of things I want to forget, but I see they are the same list.

I have dreamed of our bed as if it were a shore where we would be washed up, not this striped mattress we must cover with sheets. [from "After an Absence"]

What we want is never simple.

Evil is simply a grammatical error: a failure to leap the precipice between "he" and "I.

Grief is a circular staircase.

I regret the way pain has taught me nothing.

Spring is the shortest season.

To be the other womanis to be a seasonthat is always about to end, when the air is floweredwith jasmine and peach, and the weather day after dayis flawless, and the forecastis hurricane.

Desperate prayers may be an indication of spiritual health rather than a sign of spiritual deficiency.

Humor's always been the problem of my work, hasn't it? When working, I feel satisfied when I surprise myself. And when I surprise myself, I wind up laughing.

If I were mayor, I'd invite everyone to have free boat trips on the river and free balloon rides over the city. I'd let the elderly in residential homes wander free.

The illusion is an agreement between the reader and writer that this [story] will be like life. The emotional temperature drops when you have footnotes.

I can't remember anything I ever wrote.

It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo.

Here are your waters and your watering place. Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.

Plan for pleasure for each and every day.

When you're young, you kind of take yourself seriously, and you think, like, "People need to see what I can do." And it's so laughable, especially with actors.

If they love they know not why, they hate upon no better ground, they hate upon no better a ground