In the long revolt against inherited forms that has by now become the narrative of 20th-century poetry in English, no poet was more flamboyant or more recognizable in his iconoclasm than Cummings.

One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else.

A motto I've adopted is, if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried.

The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper.

Poetry is like standing on the edge of a lake on a moonlit night and the light of the moon is always pointing straight at you.

Nationalism is a type of insanity in which the boundaries of a land replace God.

In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.

Write the poem only you can write.

But my heart is always propped up in a field on its tripod, ready for the next arrow.

But tonight, the lion of contentment has placed a warm heavy paw on my chest.

While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the windowpane.

No matter the nature of your individuality, you can nurture a better identity and have a mature positively rewarding life.

His true nature, leopard, knight, and prince…“Just as you see the Wyr in me, I see the Djinn in you.

To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

ASK YOURSELF: Are you presenting yourself in the best of all lights, online and off, and demonstrating the dignity of good manners? Make sure of it! If not, it may come back to haunt you.

The foreigners come out here always to teach, whereas they had much better learn, for, in everything but wits and knowledge, the Arab is generally the better man of the two.

I'm finally dating. It's fun.

I don't work under the illusion that I'm the next whatever. Every time a record comes out, if it gets a good review, I'm like, "Well, one more year, guys. We bought ourselves another year".

Some guys can do digital things where they make some tricks work, but I work on paper and I work with washes. You can't just change things afterwards. You have to get it right on the page.

My first year of pro ball I played in the Northwest league and made the all-star team, and the next year I played I led the team in hitting and was third or fifth in the league.

Man is a rough-hewn and woman a finished product.