The sort of poetry I seek resides in objects man can't touch.

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.

We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.

Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch.

I'm a holy man minus the holiness.

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.