“Criticism is like politics: if you don't make your own you are by default accepting the status quo and are finally yourself responsible for whatever the status quo does to you.”

“. . .criticism is to poetry as air is to a noise: it allows it to be heard; and even if we can't see it or feel it, it is there, shaping how we hear.”

“the next time you hear someone in a workshop remarking on how good a particular free-verse line or passage sounds, scan it. The odds are that it will fall into a regular metrical pattern.”

“After all, what is lyric but the seamless fusion of formal control and passionate conviction, in the service of the expression of personal experience?”

“Unless you interfere with your belief system, which is where you make most of your decisions, you will recreate the status quo.”

“Successful people are inspired people; they are unwilling to accept the “status quo.”

“Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.”