Mark Strand

“When we walk in the sun our shadows are like barges of silence.”

“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.”

“Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.”

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

“Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented.”

“In a field I am the absence of field. This is always the case. Wherever I am I am what is missing.”