"I'm not a person who believes in any kind of afterlife. I'm a person who believes in this life."

"Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat."

"The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same as for love."

"I would like to be a person of words. I would like to be a person of ideas. I am not."

"I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light."