“that your power of commandwith simple language wasone of the magnificent things ofour century.(from the poem: result)”

“I held herwrists and then I got it through the eyes: hatred,centuries deep and true. I was wrong and graceless andsick. all the things I had learned had been wasted.there was no creature living as foul as Iand all my poems werefalse.”

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

“Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.”

“Most people are much better at saying things in letters than in conversation, and some people can write artistic, inventive letters, but when they try a poem or story or novel they become pretentious.”

“Christmas poem to a man in jailhello Bill Abbott:I appreciate your passing around my books injail there, my poems and stories.if I can lighten the load for some of those guys withmy books, fine.but literature, you know, is difficult for theaverage man to assimilate (and for the unaverage man too);I don't like most poetry, for example,so I write mine the way I like to read it.”

“How are his poems?""He's not as good as he thinks he is, but then most of us feel that way.”