Getting even is one reason for writing.

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

As Borges has taught us, all the books in the library are contemporary. Great poems are like granaries: they are always ready to enlarge their store.

It’s not the word made flesh we want in writing, in poetry and fiction, but the flesh made word

For me, the short story is not a character sketch, a mouse trap, an epiphany, a slice of suburban life. It is the flowering of a symbol center. It is a poem grafted onto sturdier stock.

Elvis made it the singer, not the song. He's the reason rock 'n' roll is still alive.