“Everybody must have wished at some time that poetry were written by nice ordinary people instead of poets—and, in a better world, it may be; but in this world writers like Constance Carrier are the well oysters that don’t have the pearls.”

“The best poetry of the second World war written by both British & American servicemen need not fear comparison with the generally more well highly regarded work of the 1914-18 poets.”

“May you be ordinary, as the poet once wished the new-born baby.”

“Poetry must be as well written as prose.”

“Well, a wish, some wish, Ruth said. Well, I wished that this world wouldn’t end. This world, this world, Ruth said softly.”

“Who wants to understand the poem
Must go to the land of poetry;
Who wishes to understand the poet
Must go to the poet's land.”

“The crazy people of the world… shouldn't get to win. If God won't make it better after they do have their shitty little victories, then ordinary people have to. They have to try, at least.”

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”

“Some secrets, she thought, were better told; some were better left the burden of the carrier, that they might not cause pain to others.”

“Everybody wants me to show my vagina to the world. And the truth is, I don’t have to.”