“Human beings are difficult. We’re difficult to ourselves, we’re difficult to each other. And we are mysteries to ourselves, we are mysteries to each other. One encounters in any ordinary day far more real difficulty than one confronts in the most “intellectual” piece of work. Why is it believed that poetry, prose, painting, music should be less than we are? . . . . I think art has a right — not an obligation — to be difficult if it wishes. And . . . I would add that genuinely difficulty art is truly democratic?”

—Geoffrey Hill, Paris Review interview (2000)