Everything You Study, Everything You Learn, Makes

I Was A Working Class Jewish Girl. In My Girlhood, Anti-semitism Was A Daily Fact Of Life In Detroit. I Did Not Come From People Who Had Many Options In Their Lives Or Many Choices Open To Them. I Was A Girl In A Family In Which Women Were, As In Society At Large, Very Much Second-class Citizens. I Did Not See Why I Should Accept These Forced Limitations Without A Fight. Being Free To Make My Own Choices Thus Became Very Important To Me At An Early Age.

I Want To Be With People Who Submerge In The Task, Who Go Into The Fields To Harvest And Work In A Row And Pass The Bags Along, Who Are Not Parlor Generals And Field Deserters But Move In A Common Rhythm When The Food Must Come In Or The Fire Be Put Out. The Work Of The World Is Common As Mud. Botched, It Smears The Hands, Crumbles To Dust. But The Thing Worth Doing Well Done Has A Shape That Satisfies, Clean And Evident.

My Strength And My Weakness Are Twins In The Same Womb.

The Will To Be Totally Rational Is The Will To Be Made Out Of Glass And Steel: And To Use Others As If They Were Glass And Steel.

Every Poet Has A Certain Amount Of "stuff." That's What You Draw From For Imagery. The More Stuff You Know Well, Not Simply Intellectually But Sensually, Emotionally, Intimately, The Wider The Pool From Which You Draw.