I’m only able to write poetry, for the most part, when I have a Muse, a woman who focuses the world for me.

We are all jellyfish, too pitiful and too afraid of being disliked to be honest.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

Without darkness, nothing comes to birth, As without light, nothing flowers.

What is destructive is impatience, haste, expecting too much too fast.

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind.

The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of room, not try to be or do anything whatever.

There are some griefs so loud/They could bring down the sky/And there are griefs so still/None knows how deep they lie.

A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless.

It is, I assume, quite easy to wither into old age, and hard to grow into it.

As a child, I always chose a false nose and some face paint and a wig for my birthday.

How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century.

I can't just sit around and do nothing. Although, I can sit on the couch sometimes and just watch movies.

Waiting for someone to propose to you only passes the "Really, it's tradition!" sniff test when both of you think it's the man's job to propose and both of you think that's awesome.

As the filmmaker, yes, I have to look out for everybody. But I don't have to know everybody's approach.

I realized I needed to address people, not just dress them.

Laughing at ones own attempt at humor while saying things just come to me should be punishable by death.

Confound you handsome young fellows! You think of having it all your own way in the world. You don't understand women. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves.

Are you waiting for success to arrive, or are you going out to find where it is hiding?

I became Patti's [Smith] messenger, basically, and the film is my view of how I learned about Patti.