Mandelstam - his gift and the untamable nature of it - was like a thorn in Stalin's brain.

Art is so often better at theology than theology is.

Nature poets can't walk across the backyard without tripping over an epiphany.

Sometimes God calls a person to unbelief in order that faith may take new forms.

To be truly alive is to feel one's ultimate existence within one's daily existence.

Human imagination is not simply our means of reaching out to God but God's means of manifesting himself to us.

We should be suspicious when God's call conforms so neatly to our own inclinations.

I don't think that someone who does not speak the original language can ever expect to produce a real translation.

I honestly don’t know whether I am describing something essential about the way we know God or merely my own weakness of mind.

I find myself continually falling back into wounds, wishes, terrors I thought I had risen beyond.

I'm drawn to this range, that's for sure, but I suppose the thing that most appeals to me about Mandelstam is the sense you get from every poem that everything - the poet's very soul - is at stake.

A rock that perseveres under heat and pressure soon becomes a diamond.

I'm losing weight, you notice, Pop?

When it's all said and done, I hope to die with a smile on my face.

I think I just have a problem generally in life of wanting more of everything - more emotion, more drama, more glitz.

When a woman has her first child in places like Africa, they're really young. They can be 12, 13,14, so their frames are really small, and they're usually malnourished.

I don't think I'll ever be a real boat reporter. My Rolex isn't big enough.

We are convinced that the Rosary, if devotely used is bound to benefit not only the individual but society at large.

I can sit and dissect for hours, and then write 50 songs about. I always find that inspiring.

If women ran the world there would be no wars. However every 28 days there would be some very intense negotiations.

I say we should stake him to an anthill and throw little pickles at him! (Selena)