I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.

I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way.

Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.

For me, poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we are and to who we will become.

You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.

Poetry, above all is a series of intense moments ­ its power is not in narrative. I'm not dealing with facts, I'm dealing with emotion.

I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.

Poetry and prayer are very similar.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.

When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.

She pushed his massive chest, which was as effective as if she pushed granite. "What are you made of, bloody stone?" He chuckled, eyes full of mirth. "Sometimes.

Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.

I just like music that sounds like music. Not like machines and computers and things that you design to make things sound slick and perfect.

You've built your homeyou've fledged your birdsyou've beaten the windwith your bonesyou've finished alonewhat no one began

I thought you'd rather have a live donkey than a dead lion.

Now let us thank th' eternal power, convinced That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction: That oft the cloud that wraps the present hour Serves but to brighten all our future days.

Don't be scared to walk alone. Don't be scared to like it.

I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot, I know I can beat him.

It is meaningless to speak in the name of - or against - Reason, Truth, or Knowledge.

Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people.