Bedtime is daytime, and we come into bloom after midnight.

— Lenore Kandel

Euphemisms chosen by fear are a covenant with hypocrisy and will immediately destroy the poem and eventually destroy the poet.

— Lenore Kandel

Like seasonless fowl we migrate…from East Coast to West Coast and back and forth again, for a job, for a friend, for a change, for a kick.

— Lenore Kandel

…love grown dutiful is love grown old withered cupid faltering at the bow…

— Lenore Kandel

…love is by definition Freeland if he chooses to go when I would have him stay perhaps I'll die a bit but I'd rather Dothan taste his absent-minded kiss and lie uneasy in a masked embrace

— Lenore Kandel

Poetry is alive because it is a medium of vision and experience. It is not necessarily comfortable. It is not necessarily safe.

— Lenore Kandel

There are no barriers to poetry or prophecy; by their nature they are barrier-breakers, bursts of perceptions, lines into infinity. If the poet lies about his vision he lies about himself and in himself; this produces a true barrier.

— Lenore Kandel

Whatever is language is poetic language and if the word required by the poet does not exist in his known language then it is up to him to discover it.

— Lenore Kandel