Walt Whitman's a hell of a lot more revolutionary than any Russian poet I've ever heard of.

People don't choose their careers; they are engulfed by them.

If there is a special Hades for writers is would be in the forced contemplation of their own works.

Individuality is freedom lived.

The creation of a world view is the work of a generation rather than of an individual, but we each of us, for better or for worse, add our brick to the edifice.

The mind cannot support moral chaos for long. Men are under as strong a compulsion to invent an ethical setting for their behavior as spiders are to weave themselves webs

Democracy evolves where freedom is able to determine its own policy.

I've always thought you should concentrate on paddling your own canoe.

I never see the dawn that I don't say to myself perhaps.

Life is to be used, not just held in the hand like a box of bonbons that nobody eats.

It's rather grisly, isnt it, how soon a living man becomes nothing more than a collection of stocks and bonds and debts and real estate?

When you’re given the gift of truth, you spend a lot of time trying to tone it down because it is already offensive enough.

Happiness and success require the highest possible optimism, with minimal expectations. Optimize without limits, and expect anything in particular.

Taking the safe road is good, but sometimes, you may miss what could be better. I’d rather love hard and get hurt then not really love at all.

I read a little bit of nonfiction and a lot of poetry. I think of poetry as my shot of whiskey when I don't have time to savor a whole bottle of wine.

I'm very headstrong and I know what I want from life. I listen to peoples' opinions, but a lot of the time I'll trust my own instincts. I'm also really clumsy, so I'm always getting hurt.

Any chance I get, I will dance.

If you really want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it.

Responsibility will mellow and sober the youth and prepare them, for the burden they must discharge.

I get real excited when I hear my shows on the radio.