“The soul was not cured, it was as full as a clothes closet of dresses that did not fit.”

“The children are all crying in their pensand the surf carries their cries away.They are old men who have seen too much,their mouths are full of dirty clothes,the tongues poverty, tears like puss.The surf pushes their cries back.Listen.”

“From "Her Kind"I have found the warm caves in the woods, filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods; fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves: whining, rearranging the disaligned.A woman like that is misunderstood.I have been her kind.”

“being sixteen in the pants I died full of questions”

“God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.”

“I like you; your eyes are full of language."[Letter to Anne Clarke, July 3, 1964.]”

“Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.”