''I've never read a political poem that's accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely what the poet wants.''
''Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.''
''The only way out is the way through, just as you cannot escape from death except by dying. Being unable to write, you must examine in writing this being unable, which becomes for the present—henceforth?—the subject to which you are condemned.''
''Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?''
''Both poet and painter want to reach the silence behind the language, the silence within the language. Both painter and poet want their work to shine not only in daylight but (by whatever illusionist magic) from within.''
