We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are.

Shakespeare will not make us better, and he will not make us worse, but he may teach us how to overhear ourselves when we talk to ourselves... he may teach us how to accept change in ourselves as in others, and perhaps even the final form of change.

What we call a poem is mostly what is not there on the page. The strength of any poem is the poems that it has managed to exclude.

What we call a poem is mostly what is not there on the page. The strength of any poem is the poems that it has managed to exclude.