"Paranoia imposes its own vision on the external world; it differs from other kinds of visionary experience in that the paranoid wants others to share his view—even insists on it. Paranoia is very like poetic creativity. This accounts for my fascination with certain people in whom this state of mind was evident: ‘characters’ met by chance, whose words and gestures would haunt me for years until, finally, in a poem I was able to dispel them."

You may also like:

• 

  Anthony Hecht
  Poet

• 

  Charles Simic
  Poet

• 

  Donald Hall
  Poet

• 

  Galway Kinnell
  Poet

• 

  Gerald Stern
  Poet

• 

  Heather McHugh
  Poet

• 

  James Wright
  Poet

• 

  John Ashbery
  Poet

• 

  Louise Glück
  Poet