"To the best of my knowledge, a saint is simply all the things that he is. If you placed him among the Old Testament figures above the south portal of Chartres, he wouldn’t look odd. His poems are sleight-of-hand demonstrations. I don’t know any religious writing that moves me as much or is as persuasive as the prose communication with the unseen, unknown, unanswering but felt fountain-source of his belief."
- William Maxwell,
"He's good, isn't he!"
- Samuel Beckett,
"One of the great original voices of our times—a pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence."
- Jack Kerouac,