Keats writes better about poems than anybody I've ever read. The things that he says about what he wants his own poems to be are the ideals that I share.
Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques.
I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
The kind of poet who founds and reconstitutes values is somebody like Yeats or Whitman - these are public value-founders.
I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
I get a lot of moral guidance from reading novels, so I guess I expect my novels to offer some moral guidance, but they're not blueprints for action, ever.
I think quite a misguided literary culture has grown up in the 20th century that says a book has to have a seriousness of purpose and a seriousness of language.
