Description
"The central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry". "What does being a writer mean to me? It means simply being true to my imagination. When I write something, I think of it not as being factually true (the mere fact is a web of circumstances and accidents), but as being true to something deeper. When I write a story, I write it because somehow I believe in it -- not as one believes in mere history, but rather as one believes in a dream or an idea". "Whistler said, 'Art happens.' That is to say, there is something mysterious about art. I would like to take his words in a new sense. I shall say: Art happens every time we read a poem". "When I write, I do not think of the reader (because the reader is an imaginary character), and I do not think of myself (perhaps I am an imaginary character also), but I think of what I am trying to convey and I do my best not to spoil it".
