To have guilt you've got to earn guilt, but sometimes when you earn it, you don't feel the guilt you ought to have. And that's what The Firebombing is about.

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.

The tricks of magic follow the archetypes of narrative fiction - there are tales of creation and loss, death and resurrection, and obstacles that must be overcome.

When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.

To understand yourself is the key to wisdom.

Everyman is me. I am his brother. No man is my enemy. I am Everyman and he is in and of me. This is my faith, my strength, my deepest hope, and my only belief.

It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion toward our fellow creatures.

Explore the situation. Statements are expendable. Don't keep on looking in the rearview mirror and defending the status quo which is outmoded the moment it happened.

Could anyone fail to be depressed by a book he or she has published? Don't we always outgrow them the moment the last page has been written?

What is beautiful is a joy for all seasons.

If any one hates to be alone with himself, the chances are that he has not much of any self to be alone with.

When the mind is free of fear, guilt, anger and is more centered, then it holds the power to heal any ailment.