“أياً يكن الحزن ووزنهفنحن مجبرون على حمله.ننهض ونحشد قوتنا الدافعة،تلك القوة البليدةالتي تقودنا عبر الحشود.ثم، وبحماسة شديدة، يدلّني فتىعلى وجهة السير. وتُبقي سيدة البابالزجاجي مفتوحاً وتنتظر بصبرلأعبر بجسدي الفارغ.يستمر هذا طوال اليوم، كل لطفيقود إلى الآخر، غريبٌيغني للاأحد بينما أعبرالممر، الأشجارتتيح ثمارها، طفلمعوّق يرفع عينيه اللوزيتين ويبتسم.على نحو ما يجدونني دائماً، ويبدوحتى إنهم ينتظرونني، مصمّمين علىإبقائي بعيدة من نفسي، من الشيء الذيينادينيكما ناداهم مرة حتماًتلك الغواية بأن أقفز عن الحافةوأسقط بلا وزن، بعيداًمن العالم.”

“Death comes to me again, a girlin a cotton slip, barefoot, giggling.It’s not so terrible she tells me,not like you think, all darknessand silence. There are windchimesand the smell of lemons, some daysit rains, but more often the air is dryand sweet. I sit beneath the staircasebuilt from hair and bone and listento the voices of the living. I like it,she says, shaking the dust from her hair,especially when they fight, and when they sing.”

“Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's.”

“Poetry is an intimate act. It's about bringing forth something that's inside you--whether it is a memory, a philosophical idea, a deep love for another person or for the world, or an apprehension of the spiritual. It's about making something, in language, which can be transmitted to others--not as information, or polemic, but as irreducible art.”

“Every good poem asks a question, and every good poet asks every question.”

“We aren't suggesting that mental instability or unhappiness makes one a better poet, or a poet at all; and contrary to the romantic notion of the artist suffering for his or her work, we think these writers achieved brilliance in spite of their suffering, not because of it.”

“Writing and reading are the only ways to find your voice. It won't magically burst forth in your poems the next time you sit down to write, or the next; but little by little, as you become aware of more choices and begin to make them -- consciously and unconsciously -- your style will develop.”