In high school I was leafing through an anthology that our teachers had given up and I found a poem, I go, "That's so strange. This poem looks so much like my grandfather's poem."

Reading poetry is an adventure in renewal, a creative act, a perpetual beginning, a rebirth of wonder.

Language is an impure medium. Speech is public property and words are the soiled products, not of nature, but of society, which circulates and uses them for a thousand different ends.

There has never been a great poet who wasn't also a great reader of poetry.

The way to become a poet is to read poetry and to imitate what you read and to read passionately and widely and in as involved a way as you can.

I put down these memorandums of my affections in honor of tenderness, in honor of all of those who have been conscripted into the brotherhood of loss.

The spiritual desire for poetry can be overwhelming, so much do I need it to experience and name my own perilous depths and vast spaces, my own well-being.

But, something has to be worked through formally as well as emotionally. Now, when those two things come together I've got something, I think, that I can be proud of.

A poem is a hand, a hook, a prayer. It is a soul in action.

I was surprised recently to find a book called "Poetry in Persons" that's coming out about visit to poets to a class that Pearl London gave.

But, the best times I have found, in my life, are late at night or early in the morning and I think it's because you're outside the social realm.

Unfathomable mind: now beacon, now sea.

There is nothing better than not knowing.

Our representation of the standard criminal might be based on the properties of those less intelligent ones who were caught.

American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.

Immortality goes through dead before all.

Fantasy appeals to me and can be very much reflected in my dress - but then, each day is different. Not every day is a magical day.

There is a small window of opportunity for freckled girls to tan.

Grace pours all beauty into the soul ... The soul means the world.

What was it like working with John Carmack on Quake? Like being strapped onto a rocket during takeoff – in the middle of a hurricane.

I'm not pert and perky anymore - when you're over 60, it's 'feisty.