In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular music.

The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.

Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.

The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.

Babies are not brought by storks and poets are not produced by workshops.

Hearing that the same men who brought us 'South Park' were mounting a musical to be called 'The Book of Mormon,' we were tempted to turn away, as from an inevitable massacre.

One does not become a guru by accident.

Windbags can be right. Aphorists can be wrong. It is a tough world.

My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple subjects - love, death, war.

English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.

Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

I like working with people. I believe change can only come through collaboration.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

I am blessed with a good metabolism, and as long as I work out, carbs don't add to my weight. If I need a leaner, meaner look for a film, I go off carbs for a bit.

And we just went with Julie because that name hadn't been used in any other popular songs at the time.

It is a woman, and only a woman, — a woman all by herself, if she likes, and without any man to help her, — who can turn a house into a home.

When we pray with our hearts and our souls I think we are being heard.

We are currently not planning on conquering the world.

A man who knows not his limitations is of no use to anyone.