Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

"It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write."

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

"No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks."

"I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged . . . I had poems which were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out."