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If you read Keats's poems, they're often full of doubts and anxieties. They can be quite tough.

I've had trouble with criticism, I guess. It's hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.

There's no artist in this world that doesn't enjoy the dream that if they have bad reviews now, the story of Keats can redeem them, in their fantasy or imagination, in the future. I think Keats' poem 'Endymion' is a really difficult poem, and I'm not surprised that a lot of people pulled it apart in a way.

Poetry criticism at its worst today is mean in spirit and spiteful in intent, as if determined to inflict the wound that will spur the artist to new heights if it does not cripple him or her.

Poetry is partly sympathy, don't you think? If it's any good, it gets people to think about others' points of view.

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.

They say poets write mostly for themselves; if anyone else likes it, well and good, if not, it doesn't matter; certainly, not to me.

There have always been great defenses of poetry, and I've tried to write mine, and I think all of my work and criticism is a defense of poetry to try and keep something alive in poetry.

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

Criticism is part of the creative man's journey, and I appreciate it.