Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships.

The highest levels of consciousness are wordless.

He who cannot howl will not find his pack.

The world is beautiful but not sayable. That's why we need art.

The secret wish of poetry is to stop time.

Insomnia is an all-night travel agency with posters advertising faraway places.

When people ask me how to find happiness in life I tell them, First learn how to cook.

Poetry: three mismatched shoes at the entrance of a dark alley.

If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.

One writes because one has been touched by the yearning for and the despair of ever touching the Other.

You are saved by grace.

Skepticism precludes one from believing many things, but not from loving many things.

There is no graceful way to carry hatred.

Every Naval vessel has a contingent of Marines aboard. After all, the Sailors have to have someone to dance with.

This rule I propose, Always have an ace in the hole. Always try to arrive at Having an ace some place private . Always have an ace in the hole.

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.

In a sense, all murderers are lunatics. Killing is a not a sane reaction to the circumstances of life.

I would never repudiate the fact that I am an Irishman

I am just beginning to understand what it is to paint. A painter should have two lives, one in which to learn, and one in which to practice his art.

The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.