There's something very authentic about humor, when you think about it. Anybody can pretend to be serious. But you can't pretend to be funny.

One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else.

A motto I've adopted is, if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried.

The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper.

Poetry is like standing on the edge of a lake on a moonlit night and the light of the moon is always pointing straight at you.

Nationalism is a type of insanity in which the boundaries of a land replace God.

In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.

Write the poem only you can write.

But my heart is always propped up in a field on its tripod, ready for the next arrow.

But tonight, the lion of contentment has placed a warm heavy paw on my chest.

While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the windowpane.

To give yourself away keep yourself still, And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill.

The world is now too small for anything but brotherhood.

The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan.

A fly rod extends a fly fisher's being as surely as do imagination, empathy or prayer.

Research – and using what you learn from it to analyze every situation – is what separates being unreasonable from being irrational.

The first lesson I've learned is that no matter what you do in your life, you have to figure out your own internal rhythms - I mean, what works for you doesn't necessarily work for your friend.

You should prefer a good scientist without literary abilities than a literate one without scientific skills

I no longer have a borrowed soul. I no longer have borrowed thoughts or ideas. I no longer speak in a borrowed language.

If we don't like a radio or TV show, we turn it off. If the left don't like it, they try to shut it down.

What am I doing in this silly showbiz life? I do wonder that sometimes.