Find out what you do best, and then don't do it.

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.

God's greatest desire is for you to come to Him.

If there is a perceived difference between what you expect from others and what you expect from yourself, it will eventually erode your influence.

There is no such thing as reconstituted lemon juice, only reconstituted taste buds.

In a personalized world, important but complex or unpleasant issues are less likely to come to our attention at all.

Start early – the sooner you start, the more you will have in your account when you retire. I actually waited until 30 before contributing…that was a big mistake.

Writing is so difficult that I feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.

I'm a tough guy, but I'm a good guy, I'm durable because when you play football they want you being tough, not just because you sprain your ankle crying "Mama, mama!"

Success means different things in different parts of my life, but overall if I have to define ultimately what success means - the bottom line - then for me it's if the family is healthy and happy.

A wild rose roofs the ruined shed, And that and summer well agree.

Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit.