And our dreams, with what frivolity we have pared them like toenails, clipped them like ends of split hair.

You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.

Both art and faith are dependent on imagination; both are ventures into the unknown.

I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer.

Nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, the deep intelligence living at peace would have.

It's when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know the taint in our own selves, that awe cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart.

Grief is a hole you walk around in the daytime and at night you fall into it.

In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.

Marvelous Truth, confront us at every turn, in every guise.

One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language.

But for us the road unfurls itself, we don't stop walking, we know there is far to go.

Be gentle, confident and action-oriented. Remember, your actions will make a difference.

We are under the spell always of what is distant from us. It is not in our nature to desire passionately what is near at hand.

The problems of aging present an opportunity to rethink our social and personal lives in order to ensure the dignity and welfare of each individual.

A picture is an artificial work, outside nature. It calls for as much cunning as the commission of a crime.

Las Vegas is still socially sanctioned deviance. Its brand is just more comfortable to more Americans than it used to be.

Uncontrolled temper is soon dissipated on others. Resentment, bitterness, and self-pity build up inside our hearts and eat away at our spiritual lives like a slowly spreading cancer.

I was writing songs because I needed them, songs about trusting God in difficult circumstances.

Hell, it is well known, has no fury like a woman who wants her tea and can't get it.

I don't like guys who will lie down and take it. I want someone who'll fight back. I like people who can argue well.