Love is a universal migraine. A bright stain on the vision, Blotting out reason.

There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them.

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.

Kill if you must, but never hate: Man is but grass and hate is blight, The sun will scorch you soon or late, Die wholesome then, since you must fight

I was last in Rome in AD 540 when it was full of Goths and their heavy horses. It has changed a great deal since then.

New beginnings and new shoots Spring again from hidden roots Pull or stab or cut or burn, Love must ever yet return.

What we now call "finance" is, I hold, an intellectual perversion of what began as warm human love.

I was thinking, "So, I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now.

One smile relieves a heart that grieves.

Your nature is not the problem. The problem is that you have become alienated from your nature -- from your power source.

Intimacy with God is that I can come in with the honesty of my heart, tell Him how much I'm hurting.

I go home by noon, and I'm in bed by 6 p.m. I get up at 1 and do it again.

Every act of self-discipline increases your confidence, trust, and belief in yourself and your abilities.

The prophet Zechariah warns that any nation that touches Jerusalem will be cut off.

Every time a shaman dies, it is as if a library burned down.

(I am) dealing not with the particular anecdote, but rather with the Spirit of Myth, which is generic to all myths at all times.

There's no present, there's no future, I don't even know about the past.

Not everybody can do the comic book adaptation thing and make it believable. It is challenging.

It certainly would be possible for America to redefine its role in the world, especially if, in the short run, America is able to cope effectively with the ongoing dilemma in the Middle East.