“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”

“The engines that have driven poetry's institutional success — the explosion of academic writing programs, the proliferation of subsidized magazines and presses, the emergence of a creative-writing career track, and the migration of American literary culture to the university — have unwittingly contributed to its disappearance from public view.”

“writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all”

“Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.”

“To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself.”

“Anyone can write. Some people can write a bit better than others; they're called authors. Then there are some who can write better than authors; they're called artists.”

“good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”

“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavoring something for the public good.”

“The desire of a poet for his writings to be in print is as natural as a painter needs to exhibit his work in public.”