If I knew how to say it directly, I would not need to write poetry. I would just talk to people and be happy.

There's the space that you soar into, the space that you sometimes break through to, and hang in. A sort of gasp or gap.

All I do and say and think 'as a poet' is much truer and more intimate than anything I say face to face.

I like to think that I'm giving a voice to the silenced.

I feel much safer faced with a blank sheet of paper than I do with a real person.

An audience sabotages my freedom, devastates my innocence, corrupts my integrity, inhibits my great joy - and of course gives me further to fall.

Poetry is a big space and I love it.

When I was first published it was like having people rushing in coming to find out where I was hiding. Scary!

Being a poet is like having an invisible partner. It isn't easy. But you can't live without it either. Talent is only 10 per cent. The rest is obsession.

I'm not so sure that the value of art is all it is cracked up to be.

I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar

The vigor of civilized societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high aims are worth-while.

Originally, the lyrics to "Girl" were really upbeat, and then it didn't work for me somehow. You need the dichotomy. If you're doing something happy and light, you need the shadows.

I did regret not graduating high school, but I made a point of going back and getting my GED later. It was important for my kids.

I'm glad they're taking a step back. A lot of this is happening so quickly that people can't keep up with it.

Man is always partial and is quite right to be. Even impartiality is partial.

The flow of energy through a system acts to organize that system.

Well British troops are superb in the field in terms of conflict.

The three greatest fools (majaderos) of history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote - and I!