"The fact to which we have got to cling, as to a lifebelt, is that it is possible to be a normal decent person and yet be fully alive."

"I'm not interested in being famous. I'm interested in being a poet."

"I'm a great believer in the power of the word."

"I'm not a philosopher. I'm a poet."

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for …"