Poetry is a way for me to explore a tingly feeling, to let it play itself out, and also to map it. I feel like I'm making little star maps when I write poems.

Negative space is important. When I teach students to read critically I advise them to look for what the author isn't saying just as carefully as for what he or she is.

Whenever I do a comedy show I still just read poems, some of which are intentionally funny and some of which are just bizarre. The mix seems to work well.

Writing essays and teaching composition have helped me immensely in writing poetry, because they've forced me to focus on the structure of ideas.

After the first few readings in comedy venues I did begin to write for laughs. There's something so gratifying about stimulating laughter.

I don't really want to write fiction at all. I don't see why fiction is necessary when we have real life already confusing enough.

Surprise keeps the reader awake. The only alternative is to continue saying what the reader is expecting. What fun is that?

The brands with which we surround ourselves prop us up, make us feel sexy and beautiful, when in reality we're pretty dumpy creatures.

When we repent by grace, we shall receive times of refreshing from God.

... a curious superstition. This is the belief that, if there be introspection at all, it must give exhaustive and infallible information.

By looking up, by raising our eyes above our limited horizon, we are more likely to perceive the blessings hidden in affliction.

Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger

After hard work, the biggest determinant is being in the right place at the right time.

No one should be put on trial without a valid reason. Former President Morsi must be treated with dignity. These are the conditions of national reconciliation.

No individual can ultimately fail. The Divinity which descends into humanity is bound to re-gain its original state.

I think violence has always been popular, way before movies started being made.

Murder is about power and the more powerful women get the more it will change the good that they do and the bad that they do.

It seems to me that all the evidence points to Apollonius as the founder of Greek mathematical astronomy.