It was peaceful, … It was very different than anything he knew. I think that appealed to him.

He was delighted, … He thought you had to be a rock star or film star to be recognized.

James loved Rhode Island, … He loved the ocean. He would sit in his beach chair for hours and look out at the ocean.

From the letters, people would certainly learn more about how a poem is made, … They may learn more about iambic pentameter than they ever wished.

I think he was astonished he won it, … I wasn’t, of course. He considered himself a minor poet, not a major poet.

He was fascinated, … He and Betty Kray [a former director of the Academy of American Poets] would talk about baking bread all the time.

I wanted him to stop, … I tried not to nag. What good does it do? It just causes dissension.

Someone once asked him, ‘How many poets do you know there?’ … He said, ‘Thank God, none.’

He loved this country, … But he despaired for it.

was very compassionate. He wrote a lot about people down on their luck.

He said, ‘I can’t teach someone how to write,’ … He just thought if you were a poet, you wrote poetry.