We in ancient countries have our past- we obsess over the past. They, the Americans, have a dream: they feel nostalgia about the promise of the future.

Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.

I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.

Once we know of atrocities we cannot remain silent, and knowledge inevitably leads to an urge to protect the innocent.

That, of course, is what great works of imagination do for us: They make us a little restless, destabilize us, question our preconceived notions and formulas.

I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become.

You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist.

It is amazing how, when all possibilities seem to be taken away from you, the minutest opening can become a great freedom.

The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.

I eat my heart out alone.

I am suddenly left alone again on the sunny path, with a memory of the rain.

Each day has a color, a smell.

My trust in a higher power that wants me to survive and have love in my life, is what keeps me moving forward.

Times change, and right now what people need is, they need to be able to send their kids to college, they need to able to buy a house.

My favorite ginger is Prince Harry!

... love given without free will or truthfulness wasn't love at all.

To give prayer the secondary place is to make God seconday in life's affairs.

Before you've seen it, and when you first see it, it is the greatest thing; afterwards, it is ordinary.

It used to be that painters were crazy and sculptors clever. Today it's the other way around.

I feel like I have been totally blessed with everything that I have done.

Poetry cannot be translation