Quote

Working alone on a poem, a poet is of all artists the most free. The poem can be written with a modicum of technology, and can be published, in most cases, quite cheaply.

You don't become a poet if you want to make any money.

I never meant to be a full-time poet: I started out as a gardener, an ideal job for a poet because your head is left free.

You can only be free as an artist if you're free as a person.

In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.

There'll always be working people in my poems because I grew up with them, and I am a poet of memory.

On a practical level, poetry isn't something anybody has really made a great living at. I might sell some books and, once in a while, someone might pay to hear me read.

I am the freest author in the world.

Unless you have financial resources of your own, you can't be free.

My work should be seen as poetry.