Some poems are art because of their passion.

I will look at the footprints going in and out of the water and dream up a small blue good to talk to.

I feel that my job, as an artist, is to disturb the peace. And to disturb it intellectually, linguistically, politically and literally.

I have left out what I don't remember or don't know. Temperament, fear, shyness, obedience, kindness.

Sometimes a person thinks he's attached to one thing and he's really attached to something else.

The artist looks for a subject. You know, a lot of new poets don't seem to have a subject. I don't totally understand that.

Humor is not funny. Humor is something else. Funny is a joke, sometimes silly. Comedy is deep and connected to tragedy; comedy could be deeper than tragedy, in my view.

There are hundreds of prisons - sexual, political, cultural. But being a prisoner also gives you impetus.

It's just that very few poets disturb the peace to any degree.

I've been active in a minor way compared to professional activists. I was a labor leader. I led two labor strikes. I've manipulated boards. I've led marches. I've done many things.

Tolstoy is one of the greatest artists in history, but he finally became infused with the idea of the uselessness of art. He gave himself to his own kind of religion.

Life Teaches You Several Things, It says 'Hi' & Gives You 'Good', It Says 'Hello' & Gives you 'Better', It says ''Wait" & Gives You "The Best

Recycling and speed limits are bullshit. They're like someone who quits smoking on his deathbed.

We shall hurt others less. Isn't it, after all, what you always wanted?

Joys are our wings, sorrows our spurs.

People want the answer to cancer, and they're not going to get it without spending money, because money is frozen energy that unfreezes itself when you pay people to work.

A novel should be as like life as a painting, but not as like life as a piece of waxwork.

Life is the power that's greater than I can ever comprehend. The way life runs through everything, even the tiniest elements of nature - that makes me humble.

I'll pick "I'm kidding" anytime over "I'm lying."

Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!

I can't fly a flag for monogamy or whatever the opposite is; it depends on the person and on the situation.