Mark Strand, late Poet Laureate, on writing and his self-identity

"My identity is hopelessly wrapped up in what I write, and my being a writer. 

If I stopped writing, I would simply feel the loss of myself. When I don’t write, I don’t feel properly alive. 

There was a period in my life, for five years, when I didn’t write any poems. They were among the saddest years of my life, perhaps the saddest years. I wrote a lot of other things. None of them satisfied me the way the writing of poetry does, but I did them, just because I had to be ready, in case poetry came back into my life and I felt capable enough to write poems that weren’t terrible. 

I refuse to write if I feel the poems I’m writing are bad. My identity is not that important, finally. Not dishonoring what I consider a noble craft is more important. 

I would rather not write than write badly and dishonor poetry—even if it meant I wasn’t properly myself. I mean, this sounds high and noble, but in fact, it’s not. 

I love poetry. I love myself, but I think I love poetry as much as I love myself."