"The only certain freedom’s in departure."

"It takes all sorts of in and outdoor schooling To get the knowledge I'm not using now."

"The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in a clarification of life—not necessarily a great clarification, such as Lowell or Emerson or Wordsworth might have given, but a momentary stay …"

"We love the things we love for what they are."

"I never ask of a pupil who has written a poem, 'What does it mean?' I always ask, 'How did you arrive at that?'"