If anxiety is the major force of our contemporary condition, a lot of poetry - including my own, mostly - sort of tries to escape that, fly off into magical thinking or bewilderment or whatever.

All is context. Choose yours carefully, where you have a choice.

I think the team will think this was an O.K. year. Some guys had career years, but the reality is that we didn't get it done at the end of the day.

All poetry is political, to some degree.

I think no matter how snarky you try to be, poetry will always find a way to make a spiritual goal out of what you're doing.

Poetry is a way of always paying attention to the world for me; a way of letting the world stick to me instead of being anxious or estranged, just being present in the world.

I worry that when educational counselors and teachers call in families with concerns about a child having a learning disability, we aren't always looking at the complete picture.

To me, art is not a solitary delight. It is a means of stirring the greatest number of men by providing them with a privileged image of our common joys and woes.

Fathers are the geniuses of the house because only a person as intelligent as we could fake such stupidity.

I can't help thinking that science would be more appealing if it had no practical use.

Never defend yourself; agree with your critics, it takes the wind out of their sails.

Prisons are the universities of the opposition.

I rang my mother to thank her for giving birth to me and she said, "What choice had I? You were in there, how else were you going to get out?

When we win, it will tell every politician in America that if you are bold, if you do the right thing, if you tackle the tough issues, there will be people standing there right with you.

Time is the one thing that is given to everyone in equal measure.

The universe doesn't allow perfection.