There ain't nothin' to dyin', really. You just get tired. You kind of drift away.

What you have to realize when you write poetry, or if you love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest god damn thing that ever was in the whole universe

I want you to hear a new version of Dueling Banjos. Anyone else is welcome.

A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.

Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.

I want a fever, in poetry: a fever, and tranquillity.

There are so many selves in everybody, and just to explore and exploit one is wrong, dead wrong, for the creative person.

I once had the nerve to ask Picasso the question, 'What is art?' He answered, 'Art is a lie which makes us see the truth.

I don’t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well.

To be precise and reckless: that is the consummation devoutly to be wished.

Poetry makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world.

Wisdom is the adobe of a great mind.

Acceptance says "True this is my situation at the moment. I'll look unblinkingly at the reality of it. But I'll also open my hands to accept willingly whatever a loving Father sends me."

The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he'll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend.

The problem is that our whole tribe - if you will, the larger community of humanity itself - is on a death march ecologically and in terms of the intensification of violence and conflict.

Who’s that? That’s the King. Who’s he? The Duke. Who’s she? The Princess. What do they call you? The Count. What does that make me? Umm…how about the Peasant? And the name stuck.

I don't have a gardener because I enjoy pulling weeds. It's hard to explain but there is something fulfilling about pulling out a weed and knowing that you got all the roots.

Teaching is performance art.

Racial justice is key to a compassionate, inclusive, dynamic society.

"Yes, but that's our strongest weak point."