So writing about love or having it infuse the poems that I'm writing has never been something I've set myself to do, except when I write a poem for my wife, for an occasion, such as our anniversary.

Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room before you save the world. Then save the world.

It is not easy writing someone a postcard. The size and shape of the card cut you down to size.

Not everyone is at the top of his or her game all the time - you can't be.

Maybe lurking in my unconscious was the idea that when someone's collected poems are published it means that the poet is dead. I found myself looking at my work as if I were at my own funeral.

I don't do much of anything consciously in writing - in poetry writing, anyway, prose usually being a different matter, of course.

It seems more than likely that the translating of poetry is going to rub off on the translator if he or she is a poet.

Collaborating with someone who doesn't understand your language nor you theirs stretches you open even wider, into a sort of very large free fall.

Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

The girl can look forward to little else than the chance of having a good man for her husband; a good man, or if her tastes lie in that direction, a rich man.

We're all vanishing organisms and disappearing creatures in space and time - that death sentence in space in time that Kafka talked about with such profundity.

Vision gets the dreams started.

Death destroys the body, as the scaffolding is destroyed after the building is up and finished. And he whose building is up rejoices at the destruction of the scaffolding and of the body.

I get so used to saying what I think people want to hear, I forget they might just want the truth sometimes.

Some white people are so accustomed to operating at a competitive advantage that when the playing field is level, they feel handicapped.

If I must be faithful to someone or something, I have, first of all, have to be faithful to myself.

The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.