Maxine Kumin

"One way of ending the poem is to turn it back on itself, like a serpent with its tail in its mouth."

John Gregory Dunne

"Although it is not necessary for a writer to be a prick, neither does it hurt. A writer is an eternal outsider, his nose pressed against whatever window on the other side of which he sees his material. Resentment sharpens his eye, hostility hones his killer instinct."