“You can't argue with someone who believes, or just passionately suspects, that the poet's function is not to write what he must write but, rather, to write what he would write if his life depended on his taking responsibility for writing what he must in a style designed to shut out as few of his old librarians as humanly possible.”

“If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.”

“They're not. That's partly what's so awful. I mean they're not real poets. They're just people that write poems that get published and anthologized all over the place but they're not poets.”

“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”

“They're just people that write poems that get published and anthologized all over the place but they're not poets.”

“...publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write.”

“I'm the one flunking out of this goddam place, and you're asking me to write you a goddam composition.”