Harvard meant a lot in my writing life from the beginning, even though I didnt actually do much composition on the spot.

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.

If sickness brought glory God, Jesus would have spread disease, not healed it.

How do you feel?"Her pupils were dilated, her cheeks flushed. "Like I want you to kiss me again."And _that_ was the invitation he'd been waiting for.

The best part of being blonde is forgivable momentary lapses of common sense.

Sometimes I have the idea right away, like, "Oh, this is what this song's about. This is how I'm feeling."

If you want the most reward you have to take the most risk.

Hoary idea, in any case, expecting a woman to surrender her name to her husband's in exchange for his. Why? Would any man submerge his identity and heritage to the woman he wed?

It seems that bad advice that's fun will always be better known than than good advice that's dull-no matter how useless that fun advice is.

But really death seems the least awful thing that can happen to someone

Where The Wild Things Are we were asking a lot of a 9-year-old kid. We were asking a lot of any actor.

[You Got To Make It Through The World] it's kind of a survival song. Survival is what's happening and it's basically a song about that.