What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.

All I know is a door into the dark

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

He hated when his own advice applied to himself.

A house filled with books is source of knowledge.

Creation pulls something from an abyss of nothing. Startups take the something & give it to those in the dark, at first, perhaps, for nothing.

Except you cannot outrun insanity, anymore than you can outrun your own shadow.

The night was starless and very dark. Without doubt, in the gloom some mighty angel was standing, with outstretched wings, awaiting the soul.

It's a little mad, but I believe I am many people. When I am writing a poem, I feel I am the person who should have written it.

If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg.

If he must be alone, he would make solitude his armor.

I just think you Westerners should take over this country if you are so smart.

The reality is this city will not be the same for a while, ... We're not saying bring New Orleans back today.