I personally regret the shift in literary study from reading primary texts to reading critical and theoretical texts. The major problem today among students is that they simply have not read enough literature. Consequently they do not have the necessary background to take a critical attitude towards literary theory. One needs to test every abstraction against experience.

Interview with Robert McPhillips (December 1991), published in Verse (Summer 1992) - Interviews - The Catholic Writer Today (2013)