The truth is, terrorism flourishes in places of injustice rather than in places of poverty.

We know what war means, and we know what poverty means. We need to develop a better model for reaching out to the world than we have.

You can't be wrong in journalism. Take a wrong turn in journalism, and you are writing fiction. You can take a wrong turn in poetry, and something wonderful can happen.

I think most good poetry is about suffering; I think that's what underlies the love in these landays pieces - suffering and longing.

Poetry allows me to write about what I don't know, whereas journalism demands a higher level of certainty to be worthy of being written.

I worked with two young women translators. One died and the other received a death threat from the Taliban.

The power of the voice in rap is about the expression of truth, rather than the expression of some kind of artifice.

In most of the world, poetry has such a different reputation than it does in Western culture.

Poetry is a popular genre in Afghanistan. If you turned on the radio, there would be a poetry program that would be as popular as The Real Housewives.

Poetry isn't as relevant in the Western world as it is in Afghanistan. And not many people make time for something that doesn't feel relevant.

I can't imagine how Afghanistan's fall isn't going to be ten times faster than Iraq's.

Mostly, all book-told gods are as little as the little men who wrote them idiots into existence.

You challenge me to be a better person. And no one else does that, except maybe my mother.

There nearly always is a method in madness.

Specifically, the part where in the early 19th century America reconstituted the U.S. Marine Corps to battle the Islamic Barbary Pirates, though I don't think that's what Obama meant.

Art is unthinkable without risk and spiritual self-sacrifice.

I don't think college wrestling is in danger of extinction by any means. But I am concerned if one program drops.

Only the minute and the future are interesting in fashion.

The power for happiness, for good, for everything we need of life is within each one of us. The power is there - unlimited power.

I very much regret, in appearing before you at your request, to address you on the present state of the country, and the prospect before us, that I can bring you no good tidings.

Amnesia may well be the highest sacrament in the great gray ritual of existence.