A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.


A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.


Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.
 

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.
 

I hate admitting that my enemies have a point.
 

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.
 

Most of what matters in your life takes place in your absence.
 

Our lives teach us who we are.
 

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.
 

What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.

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