I don't think there's any law where you have to read a poem and immediately understand it.

There is such a shelter in each other.

Cargo cults fascinate me partly because Christianity itself is in many ways a cargo cult.

She was privileged enough to feel at home anywhere, and to equate squalor with authenticity.

Nabokov quote: "I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child."

The reason that the book exists is because there was a gap in you. You wrote the book to fulfill that gap in some way.

A huge portion of Trump voters are incredibly pleased with how he's performing. They see what they want to see.

In fact, lots of good poetry doesn't work , so I don't mind a bit of mystification or difficulty.

Writing a poem is a more personal experience, I think, than writing prose. And perhaps reading a poem is a more personal experience than reading prose, though that's harder to say.

That's what Samuel Johnson said: "Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think particularly fine, strike it out."

When you're rereading or editing your book and you start to expect that this work is going to be reviewed, and you can sort of tell which line is going to show up in reviews.

If you give in to temptation, you may have a moment of enjoyment, but then you'll have a lifetime of regrets.

They go on to this better place, you know, which is what they wanted all along. But you and me, we're still left behind with all the questions they couldn't answer.

As the world continually multiplies, are we in a generation where people are divided, or people are equal?

the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water

Every renaissance comes to the world with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free.

The greatest antidote in the world for grief is work, and the necessity of work.

As thou hast created me out of mingled air and glitter, I thank thee for it. [Ger., Wie aus Duft und Glanz gemischt Du mich schufst, dir dank ich's heut.]

One of the benefits of eating salad is that you can eat tons of it and never be satisfied.

I was never really a writer, I was always more of a performer.

Tobacco is the passion of honest men and he who lives without tobacco is not worthy of living.