My father died when I was five, but I grew up in a strong family.

The irony is, going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry.

I write what's given me to write.

My earliest poems were a way of talking to somebody. I suppose to myself.

I still believe in this country, that it can fulfill the destiny Blake and Whitman envisioned. I still believe in American poetry.

How weightless/ words are when nothing will do.

Now I think poetry will save nothing from oblivion, but I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary, the only home.

I find you in these tears, few, useless and here at last. Don't come back.

There'll always be working people in my poems because I grew up with them, and I am a poet of memory.

You have begun to separate the dark from the dark.

I realized poetry's the thing that I can do 'cause I can stick at it and work with tremendous intensity.

...our market system depends critically on trust-trust in the word of our colleagues and trust in the word of those with whom we do business.

Valentine's Day gifts like teddy bears, chocolate and perfume are SO lame. How about be thoughtful and original?

Put a 'stop-loss' order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth- and refuse to give it any more.

I always wanted to be an actor.

It's hard to tell who's going to win this week, but it probably won't be a big, fat guy.

You're making me nervous by being so weird. But your weirdness is what I like about you.

It's important for us to fight for certain changes that need to happen. And one of those issues that I really care about is education. But also another one is incarceration.

Don't plan it all. Let life surprise you a little.

Somewhere in the world is...The world's worst doctor and he could be yours.

I rely on my directors, a lot. I love being directed.