In my life, I've seen enormous increase in the consumption of poetry. When I was young, there were virtually no poetry readings.

I felt the need to be more open and expressive of my feelings, not just about the hills and the countryside, but about the daily life.

There are books all around me... I don't read as much as I used to, but I always have a book or two going.

I live in the house my great-grandfather moved to in 1865... I spent all my summers here as a kid haying with my grandfather, and it was my favorite place in the world.

I would work until I got stuck, and I would put it down and pick up something else. I might be able to take a 20-minute nap and get to work again. That way, I was able to work about 10 hours a day... It was important to me to work every day. I managed to work on Christmas day, just to be able to say I worked 365 days a year.

In December of 1952, my first wife, Kirby, and I left Vienna to drive through the Russian sector of Austria into Yugoslavia.

Divorce was miserable, as it always is, and we divorce for the same reasons we marry.

When I finished my initial year at Oxford, I flew home to marry Kirby, who had been my girlfriend in college. We had met on a blind date.

When I lament and darken over my diminishments, I accomplish nothing. It's better to sit at the window all day, pleased to watch birds, barns, and flowers.

It is sensible of me to be aware that I will die one of these days. I will not 'pass away.'