We Have Stopped Believing In Progress. What

My Books Standing There On The Shelf Do Not Know That I Have Written Them.

I Have Committed The Worst Of Sins One Can Commit... I Have Not Been Happy.

That Is What Always Happens: We Never Know Whether We Are Victors Or Whether We Are Defeated.

I Hardly Know What I'm Going To Write - An Article, A Story, A Poem In Free Verse - Or In Some Regular Form. I Only Know That When I Have The First Sentence. And When The First Sentence Makes A Kind Of Pattern, Then I Find Out The Kind Of Rhythm I'm Looking For.

In The Critics' Vocabulary, The Work 'precursor' Is Indispensable, But It Should Be Cleansed Of All Connotations Of Polemics Or Rivalry.