A poet trains himself to stand out in a storm and be struck by lightning. If he is lucky enough to be struck six times, he becomes immortal. Randall Jarrell said it and he's right.

What you have to realize when you write poetry, or if you love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest god damn thing that ever was in the whole universe

I want you to hear a new version of Dueling Banjos. Anyone else is welcome.

A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.

Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.

I want a fever, in poetry: a fever, and tranquillity.

There are so many selves in everybody, and just to explore and exploit one is wrong, dead wrong, for the creative person.

I once had the nerve to ask Picasso the question, 'What is art?' He answered, 'Art is a lie which makes us see the truth.

I don’t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well.

To be precise and reckless: that is the consummation devoutly to be wished.

Poetry makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world.

Mind was crafted to preserve some and forget some. We have to decide when to choose delete button.

Christianity has done a great deal for love by making a sin of it.

You can make fun of your own a lot easier than someone else's.

So I live in Los Angeles, and it's kind of a goofy place. They have an airport named after John Wayne. That ought to explain it. It has a charming kind of superstitious innocence.

The tide tarrieth no man.

The best answer to the extremists is to build a better world.

I have to give props to my stunt double, who is the real deal and gets to do all the fun stuff and make me look good.

God is what man finds that is divine in himself. It is the best way man can behave in the ordinary occasions of life, and the farthest point to which man can stretch himself.

Gandhi, who went to Wendy's and asked, "Where's the belief?" Never got a dinner!

Reject the phony Patients' Bill of Rights....We don't have to continue down the path of socialized medical care, especially in America where free markets have provided so much for so many.