Milton was the first person who really experimented with putting politics into sonnets.

It's hell writing and it's hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written.

Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings, saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.

Take the time to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour a day.

Longing, we say, because desire is full of endless distances.

Poetry is a fireplace in summer or a fan in winter.

If you're imaginatively responsible to the place you live in, you understand the watershed.

The birds are silent in the woods. / Just wait: soon enough / You will be quiet too

Imagination runs through the places where we live like water. We need both things-a living knowledge of the land and a live imagination of it and our place in it- if we are going to preserve it.

Repetition makes us feel secure and variation makes us feel free.

Writing is an incessant process of discovery.

People say love isn’t supposed to be painful. But maybe the best things in life are the ones that hurt the most after they’re gone.

Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.

I don't live beyond my means. I enjoy luxury and I enjoy the privilege of it, when I can afford it, and I'm in the situation where it's been given to me, but I'm very conscious of what is wasteful.

Fifty percent of the world are women, yet they always seem a novelty.

We knew we loved making cookies and every time we did, we made people happy. That was our business plan.

When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.

Nothing is stranger to man than his own image.

I've always been a religious guy, but not overly religious. I've always believed in God and Jesus. I pray.

What do Harley-Davidson, LEGO, and Apple have in common? They're all based on communities.

Yes, my kids come first, but as a parent I need to come to them with a fresh mind. I can't be too exhausted or too tired. And I am a better parent when I have more energy.