The appointment [in Harvard] gave me economic safety, writerly support, and intellectual self-respectplus eight months to myself every year.

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.

All I know is a door into the dark

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

When strangers meet, great allowances should be made for differences in custom and training.

I don't think bonuses are always bad.

The campaign against polygamy, around which a lot of anti-Mormon sentiment was organized, seems horrific to me.

In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution.

Be more loving, compassionate and understanding with ourselves, with others, and with the planet, because we are all connected. We are one.

That's life and you can't change anything, you know.

I was taught very well. My mom raised me very well, and so did my dad. I've been very blessed to have great parents that cared about me.

From what I hear, [ "Fifty Shades of Grey" ] is not a way that I feel like I need to be turned on or like a hole that needs to be filled in me.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round, They remember it again - Echo still the joyful sound "Peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Should I pursue a path so twisted? Should I crawl defeated and gifted?