"I am not a liberal. I am a radical. I am as radical as anything you ever saw."

"I'm not a nature poet. I have only written two poems without a human being in them."

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

"The world is full of people who are trying to get out of things. They're trying to get out of responsibility, they're trying to get out of work."

"Thinking is not to be done by proxy."