Mark Strand

And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.

I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.

Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.

I don't like to get in front of people.

It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.