The one who writes a poem writes it above all because verse writing is an extraordinary accelerator of conscience, of thinking, of comprehending the universe.

It is not just shameful for a contemporary American poet to use rhymes, it is unthinkable. It seems banal to him; he fears banality worse than anything, and therefore, he uses free verse - though free verse is no guarantee against banality.

After the last line of a poem, nothing follows except literary criticism.

It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours. To translate it is even more maddening.

One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.

The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even / if you will / eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with.