Merely to have survived is not an index of excellence.

Poetry operates by hints and dark suggestions. It is full of secrets and hidden formulae, like a witch's brew.

I look and look, / As though I could be saved simply by looking

It doesnt seem to me strange that children should like the macabre, the sensational, and the forbidden.

Mysteries, like the Masonic rites, are ones parents and elders are sworn not to reveal to the uninitiated, which include all children. And so we sought for signs.

If the heart has its reasons, perhaps the body Has its own lumbering sort of carnal spirit, Felt in the tingling bruises of collision, And known to captains as esprit de corps.

There's not a good poet I know who has not at the beck and call of his memory a vast quantity of poetry that composes his mental library.

I'm filled with admiration, delight, and gratitude at discovering James Lasdun's poems in A Jump Start. He has wit, speed, intelligence, a keen eye, precision, and imagination of a high order.

Children know from a remarkably early age that things are being kept from them, that grown-ups participate in a world of mysteries.

Christianity helps us face the music even when we don't like the tune.

The dark comedies tend to be in a non-releasable area. There can be romantic comedies. There can be dramas. But there's no 'dark comedy' inbox for the advertising.

Leaders are made through discipline, training, experience, failure, and the desire to continually improve.

It's not a revolution if nobody loses

If you would perfect your body, guard your mind.

To my eye, women get sexier around 35. They know a thing or two, and knowledge is always alluring.

Life is a bank account, there are no withdrawals without first putting something in.

We're stuck in fear and in not wanting to cross that most important bridge of understanding that we're more alike or not. We all cry, we all laugh.

We should never be at the mercy of Providence if only we understood that we ourselves are Providence.

A house is more than just a shelter; that it is a way of improving your way of life.