I feel compassionate, because I know [students] all have to go down this road of suffering and it's going to be tough.

Writing a poem is unwriting a knot, like untying a shoelace that is clubbing your foot.

New formalism is writing with language as flow, like the flow from a dam, running through a desert that has had no rain for decades.

Poetry must speak of others, in order to speak for the poet's imagination, in order to speak of itself; it is slowed down by poetics after its flight is over.

As I grew older - and even when I was younger - it had puzzled me why I continued and continue to be heterosexual.

Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.

At a certain point, the struggles with teaching and mothering and so on and so forth, those decline, those lessen.

I'm in my 60s, and a cancer scare just makes you more aware of mortality.

Working women went through a time when they believed that.

[My muse] she's impatient with me, because I don't do what I should do: sit down and write.

Agency over one's sexual self - and the articulation of that kind of agency - might seem transgressive to readers who don't expect it in a woman's text.

The wave of memory had submerged me for a whole minute, while I'd just sat staring and let it all come flooding back.

Beauty makes idiots sad and wise men merry.

My goal as an actor has always been to reach a level where I can find a lot of interesting work, and I think I'm at that point now. The Oscar has given me a lot of recognition.

Increasing the power of the state in response to the Soviet menace would not defeat socialism in Russia but bring it to the United States.

The Yankees have better starting pitchers than Arizona. Arizona just has two... the Yanks have four.

T-shirt and stretchy pants? Yup, that's fine. It's pajama-y, good night.

He has always been a slippery little git! (on Joe Cole)

I was you and never knew it.

I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue.

I'm very comfortable with my sexuality, my body, my face - well, sometimes I'm not comfortable with my face, but it's stuck there and there's nothing I can do about it.