I always return to Paris, taking my selves along - past self, customary self, the self I never had.

poetry ... shows with a sudden intense clarity what is already there.

nobody alive or dead deserves to be called a poetess.

The poor South. Already guilty of slavery, it became guilty of cigarettes.

being asked to decide between your passion for work and your passion for children was like being asked by your doctor whether you preferred him to remove your brain or your heart.

I don't feel like a survivor. I feel left behind.

Traveling-to-a-place energy and living-in-a-place energy are two fundamentally different energies

New Testament gospels are traditionally accorded a cultural sanctity and lofty regard completely out of line with their literary worth.

All paradises are there to be expelled from.

if a person wishes to achieve peace of mind and happiness then they should acquire faith, but if they want to be a disciple of truth, which can be "frightening and ugly,” then they need to search.

What does New York sound like? For me, the Charlie Parker at the Royal Roost recordings on the Savoy label are the total embodiment of the New York music experience.

It takes 50 years to get a wrong idea out of medicine, and 100 years a right one into medicine.

Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars

All of us have a responsibility to help pay for health care.

Life is never more fun than when you're the underdog competing against the giants.

Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.