"Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible, as a contemporary poet."

"If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable."

"A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does."

"Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts."

"Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital."

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings."

"Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards."

"Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are."