Until recently, I thought 'occasional poetry' meant that you wrote only occasionally.

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.

How does something so invisible make one so invincible?

A thought can be said in hundred different ways but only one of them will be very effective and popular: The one which has been said in the simplest and clearest way!

Tokyo cab drivers are all ex-kamikaze pilots.

Some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world, I want to be the one to walk in the sun.

Make a man laugh a good hearty laugh, and you've paved the way for friendship. When a man laughs with you, he, to some extent, likes you.

You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.

If you look at my audiences, even in Europe, they're hardly teenagers.

Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary.

The human psyche shows that each individual is an extension of all of existence.

If you focus on principles, you empower everyone who understands those principles to act without constant monitoring, evaluating, correcting, or controlling.