I don't miss teaching. I'm learning to take my time for myself.

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 key to success―keep swimming. Even when they tap you on the shoulder to say the pool has been drained, just keep swimming.

Tell me what's emotion… and what's like… both words what do they mean?

Why do I prefer cats to dogs? I have never stepped in cat shit.

There's actually a lot of evidence in primates and other animals that they return favors.

I'm lucky. I've worked with extremely talented women who won't sacrifice comedy to make themselves look better.

I think it is easy for people to build up an image of what I'm about. I consider myself quite a nice chappy really. I'm decent to people, I stay in and listen to Radio 4.

We can't exempt ourselves from the same moral calculus that we are willing to apply to others.

And the Lord said you got to rise Up!

I have had four happy days in my life, and three of them turned out to be illusions.

Man does not understand nor accept immortality except on condition of self-remembrance.