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

For some of us, the less said about the way we do things the better.
Mark Strand

The future is always beginning now.
Mark Strand

Each moment is a place you've never been.
Mark Strand

It's very hard to write humor.
Mark Strand

And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
Mark Strand

I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes.
Mark Strand

From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.
Mark Strand