You're always believing ahead of your evidence. What was the evidence I could write a poem? I just believed it. The most creative thing in us is to believe in a thing.

I heard someone say he [Carl Sandburg] was the kind of writer who had everything to gain and nothing to lose by being translated into another language.

Life is tons of discipline. Your first discipline is your vocabulary; then your grammar and your punctuation

For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing ... is discovering.

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

It's God - I recognised him from Blake's picture.

If you're looking for something to be brave about, consider fine arts.