And as to experience-well, think how little some good poets have had, or how much some bad ones have.

Being a poet is one of the unhealthier jobs--no regular hours, so many temptations!

All my life I have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper - just running down the edges of different countries and continents, 'looking for something'.

The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

If after I read a poem the world looks like that poem for 24 hours or so I'm sure it's a good one—and the same goes for paintings.

What one seems to want in art, in experiencing it, is the same thing that is necessary for its creation, a self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration.

I am overcome by my own amazing sloth...Can you please forgive me and believe that it is really because I want to do something well that I don't do it at all?

Sometimes it seemsas though only intelligent people are stupid enough to fall in love & only stupid people are intelligent enough to let themselves be loved.

All the untidyactivity continues, awful but cheerful.

Democracy in the contemporary world demands, among other things, an educated and informed people.

Oh, must we dream our dreams and have them, too?

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

It's not uncool to worry about people who seem like they're going on the wrong path. There's nothing cool about being self-destructive.

Life experience is not something to be denied, but to be celebrated.

The greatest weapon any warrior can carry into battle is absolute certainty of her eternal soul.

I'm not much of a matchmaker. I think people have to make their own choices and mistakes and all that stuff.

I'm not the kind of poet who arranges treasure-hunts to please the academics and keep them busy. Poetry should be surprising in deeper ways.

I'm the one and only. In heaven and on Earth

A lot of people do have tragic childhoods. But you know what? Get over it.

Barbarism is the natural state of mankind.

Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.