Sometimes the archaism of the language when it's spoken is why we are all in love with the Irish today.

Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it.

I do not read newspapers. I do not watch television. I am not interested in current events, although I will occasionally discuss them if other people want to discuss them.

But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.

But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events.

High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this.

Learning to live what you're born with is the process, the involvement, the making of a life.

American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did.

American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

Still, language is resilient, and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground.

I write in the first person because I have always wanted to make my life more interesting than it was.

When times get tough, and you are feeling isolated, remember that you are not alone.

Peace in international affairs: a period of cheating between periods of fighting

Normally a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich if a prosecutor asks it to.

Most of us don't know about happiness until it's over.

People just want to have access to all of the world's music.

Who has created more peace in the world, the Peace Corps or the Marine Corps?

There's practical political considerations obviously, but there's also these broader themes, which is like, I don't want to be the manager of the Middle East.

The best advice I ever came across on the subject of concentration is: Wherever you are, be there.

Every day you must unlearn the ways that hold you back. You must rid yourself of negativity, so you can learn to fly.

The only times that we can have what we long for are those moments when we stop grasping for it. At such times, all things are possible: "to a mind that is 'still' the whole universe surrenders".