“Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop up my nose, or against any man's metaphor.”

“The things that are said in literature are always the same. What is important is the way they are said. Looking for metaphors, for example: When I was a young man I was always hunting for new metaphors. Then I found out that really good metaphors are always the same.”

“Suppose the word mountain meant metaphor, and dog, and Bible, and the United States. Clearly, if a word meant everything, it would mean nothing. If, now, the law of contradiction is an arbitrary convention, and if our linguistic theorists choose some other convention, I challenge them to write a book in conformity with their principles. As a matter of fact it will not be hard for them to do so. Nothing more is necessary than to write the word metaphor sixty thousand times: Metaphor metaphor metaphor metaphor…. This means the dog ran up the mountain, for the word metaphor means dog, ran, and mountain. Unfortunately, the sentence “metaphor metaphor metaphor” also means, Next Christmas is Thanksgiving, for the word metaphor has these meanings as well.”

“Contra la policía/Against the PoliceMy entire Oeuvre is against the policeIf I write a Love poem it’s against the policeAnd if I sing the nakedness of bodies I sing against the policeAnd if I make this Earth a metaphor I make a metaphor against the policeIf I speak wildly in my poems I speak against the policeAnd if I manage to create a poem it’s against the policeI haven’t written a single word, a verse, a stanza that isn’t against the policeAll my prose is against the policeMy entire OeuvreIncluding this poemMy whole OeuvreIs against the police.”

“Landscape is metaphor / and only metaphor. But, oh, I have loved it so.”

“Metaphors are dangerous, Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.”