“A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.”

“And the poem, I think, is only your voice speaking.”

“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.”

“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.”

“Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.”

“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and...”

“Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of gen...”

“All canonical writing possesses the quality "of making you feel strangeness at home.”

“The isolated imagination is easily corrupted by theory, but the writer inside his community seldom has such a problem.”

“Great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors.”

“The best part of a writer's biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style. [Vogue, interview,...”

“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”