Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely.

There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself.

A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it.

Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more.

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

We should always do something that makes us feel like a child again. Keep learning, no matter what it is.

The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.

I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.

Sometimes a word is found so right it trembles at the slightest explanation.

She's familiar. My only familiar thing in a world of inconsistency and confusion.

Pretending to him that she felt something would be easy. Pretending to herself that she didn't? That was a whole other story.

Blessed be childhood which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness.

A yoga session is harder than a football practice easily for me. Probably in some ways just as intense, not from a physical standpoint of hitting ,but from a game, the intensity is the same.

I'm not trying to take more of the pie for myself. I'm trying to make the pie larger for everyone.

Who speaks the truth stabs falsehood to the heart.

It's ridiculous to insinuate that the social recognition of homosexual civil unions damages families or the institution of marriage.

You can compare me with Greta Garbo. I have big feet, too.

Marriage to me means unity, it means strength because I believe that both people can be stronger in their calling because of each other.

God, give me a good humiliation every day. It's good for the soul and it's good for the ego.