Best to say that once a poem is finished I trust it to make its way, and I trust readers will find their way to it and through it, if the thing has got itself rightly expressed.

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.

All I know is a door into the dark

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.

In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.

Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"No, " Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!

If the City Council wants to hold the police accountable, it has the subpoena power and oversight responsibility to do so. They don't have the courage to do it.

One of the great inventions of the twentieth century was the studied, methodical engineering of myth for political ends.

The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.

If you are brave enough to be yourself, I think that is a huge risk and should be applauded.

When you find your opponent's weak spot, hammer it.

The school curriculum today, particularly American history, is a shame.

I think it would be cute to marry your high school sweetheart, but I think it would also be nice to be sitting on a plane with somebody who lives across the world from you.