
“The poet doesn't invent. He listens.”
"Poets, Critics, and Readers" (1959)
“The poet doesn't invent. He listens.”
The Paris Review interview (1958)
Context: The perfect ideal would be that a man who is essentially nonviolent would be able to defend himself against any form of violence. But this is very rare in life. But this raises one of the most important themes in Eternity, why Prewitt does not shoot back at the MPs who kill him as he tries to get back to his unit after his murder of Fatso Judson. You see, when Prewitt kills Fatso he is carrying the theory of vengeance by violence to its final logical end. But the thing is that Fatso doesn't even know why he is being killed; and when Prewitt sees that, he realizes what a fruitless thing he has done.
Olga Carlisle in The New York Times, September 11, 1966.
Criticism
1984 interview with Detective Robert Keppel (regarding the Green River Killer)
Yvor Winters Uncollected Essays and Reviews (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1973) p. 139.
Criticism
“I love my fed-ex guy cause he's a drug dealer and he doesn't even know it…and he's always on time.”
Just For Laughs: On The Edge - 2002
Source: Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart