When people say there is too much violence in [my books], what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck

When poets write about food it is usually celebratory. Food as the thing-in-itself, but also the thoughtful preparation of meals, the serving of meals, meals communally shared: a sense of the sacred in the profane

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food

The third man in the ring makes boxing possible

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions