“Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.”
“The poet wishes to strike beautiful notes, not new notes... To ask or expect a poet to strike a new note in poetry is exactly like asking or expecting the Nightengale to strike a new note in her perennial song.”
“Remorse, etymologically, is the action of biting again: that's what the feeling does to you. Imagine the strength of the bite when I reread my words. They seemed like some ancient curse I had forgotten even uttering.”
“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. ”
“Words to a writer is like notes to a musician, both know when they are off key.”
“Words were sometimes like ammo. They could strike you with fear worse than an arrow. And worse was sometimes knowing ahead a time what the words were.”