"The idea of repair itself belongs to the past." --Sven Birkerts

Pretending is one of the best, as having to pretend is one of the worst things. The liberty of art.

There are subtle virtues in being lame, but the muse is swiftness.

"The indifference in which Bridges' plays are held can be explained only by the fact that almost no one has read them." --Albert Guerard

...there's no harm in it after all, as long as i don't identify myself as an artist. For in order for that to be true, i would have to discredit all the other artists in the world (except for the few that are like me). This Draconian measure, i sometimes wonder if all my theories of art are a kind of blueprint for.

The urge to rewrite--a mental tic. All the effort should precede the act: readiness, emptying, centering oneself in the crucial situation. Mumbling, humming, staring, pacing, reading or reciting key lines....light as it falls across the page. These should be the interest of criticism: shedding one's skin, its etiquette & physics. Not battling ideologies, genealogies, quibbles.

Make no mistake--the poets are every bit as dispossessed as the people, of the power of the word.