Thus the man who is responsive to artistic stimuli reacts to the reality of dreams as does the philosopher to the reality of existence; he observes closely, and he enjoys his observation: for it is out of these images that he interprets life, out of these processes that he trains himself for life.

If you write fiction, you have to love your characters. It's like your family. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them.

To exaggerate the fairness of hair, I come even to orange tones, chromes and pale yellow ... I make a plain background of the richest, intensest blue that I can contrive, and by this simple combination of the bright head against the rich blue background, I get a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky.

I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns

We are the sons of Sorrow; we are the poets and the prophets and the musicians.

Poetry is the experience of liberty. The poet risks himself, chances all on the poem's all with each verse he writes.