We are blind and live our blind lives out in blindness. Poets are damned but they are not blind, they see with the eyes of the angels.

It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.

The beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.

The job of the poet is to use language effectively, his own language, the only language which is to him authentic.

The weight of love Has buoyed me up Till my head Knocks against the sky.

As birds' wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight.

It is not fair to be old, to put on a brown sweater.

There is nothing beginning nor end to the imagination but it delights in its own seasons reversing the usual order at will.

My first poem was a bolt from the blue … it broke a spell of disillusion and suicidal despondence. ... it filled me with soul satisfying joy.

Somewhere the sense makes copper roses steel roses — The rose carried weight of love but love is at an end — of roses It is at the edge of the petal that love waits.

if youdon't want toend up insomeone else'spoem, then maybeyou shouldstarttreatingpeoplebetterfor achange.- an unapologetic poet.

Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there's no fitting into it now.

I was never a Certified Public Accountant. I just had a degree in accounting. It would require passing a test, which I would not have been able to do.

Your life is the sum total of all your choices up to this present minute.

The life of a professional golfer is precarious at best. Win, and they carry you to the clubhouse on their shoulders. Lose, and you pay the caddies in the dark.

Inward is not a direction. Inward is a dimension.

There are a couple of teachers I have had without whose influence I would not be as happy with who I am.

If you weren’t an optimist, it would be impossible to be an architect.

The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs.

Writing as writing. Writing as rioting. Writing as righting. On the best days, all three.