Profundity Is Easier than Precision

Pot was a fabulous way to listen to music, emptying out the space between notes. But for writing? I’m a maximalist, and the whole point is to fill the mind. My drug of choice now is a chilled martini, but with the first sip—however shaken or stirred I’ve been at the desk—the day’s work is over. Poetry above all wants clarity of thought and feeling. The worst of it is, drugs and alcohol by midnight will inevitably have led to great insights, and as Paul Valéry once said, profundity is a hundred times easier to get than precision.

J. D. McCLATCHY