I sat near a window in our little synagogue and looked out at the large church and wondered how a statue whose face was so full of love could be worshipped by someone whose heart was so full of hate.

I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.

Art is whether or not there is a scream in him wanting to get out in a special way.

Something that is yours forever is never precious

Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things.

Art begins . . . when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it.

Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere.

I do not have many things that are meaningful to me. Except my doubts and my fears. And my art.

All beginnings are hard.

I don't work on my Sabbath. I write five-and-a-half or six days a week.

Two people who are true friends are like two bodies with one soul

Do what you are passionate about. Do it for yourself, nobody else.

She was not alone in her respect for him. Because he is more than a boss to people. He’s a religion for non-believers.

There have always been great defenses of poetry, and I've tried to write mine, and I think all of my work and criticism is a defense of poetry to try and keep something alive in poetry.

The thing you can count on in life is that Tennessee will always be scorching hot in August.

One reason God created time was so that there would be a place to bury the failures of the past.

Instead of running from the negative, I've started running towards the positive.

What we see is what they're trying to sell us.

I've never quit anything in my life.

With the evolution of technology, kids really need to be computer-savvy.