“To submit to chance is to reveal the self and its obsessions.”

“Lyric poets are always corrupting the young, making them choke in self-pity and indulge in reverie. Dirty sex and direspect for authority is what they have been whispering into their ears for ages.”

“When you play chess alone it's always your move.”

“If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.”

“This strange thing must have crept Right out of hell.It resembles a bird’s footWorn around the cannibal’s neck.As you hold it in your hand,As you stab with it into a piece of meat,It is possible to imagine the rest of the bird: Its head which like your fistIs large, bald, beakless, and blind.”

“If the sky falls they shall have clouds for supper.”

“A poem is an invitation to a voyage. As in life, we travel to see fresh sights.”