When a child, my dreams rode on your wishes, I was your son, high on your horse, My mind a top whipped by the lashes Of your rhetoric, windy of course.

When you read and understand a poem, comprehending its rich and formal meanings, then you master chaos a little.

Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.

The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness.

History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.

I think continually of those who were truly great.

There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife - a tyrannical midwife.

All that you can imagine you already know.

So i learned both to accept myself and to aim beyond myself

All the posters on the walls All the leaflets in the streets Are mutilated, destroyed or run in rain, Their words blotted out with tears, Skins peeling from their bodies In the victorious hurricane.

There is a certain justice in criticism.

Ever since her diagnosis, she’s been fading like a light bulb with cancer’s hand on the rotary dimmer.

To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.

O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.

Embrace the unpredictable and unexpected. It is the path to the infinitely creative in you.

Economic history is the most fundamental branch of history; not the most important. Foundations exist to carry better things.

For me, the measure of a poem is the word, not the line.

All women should understand that a mammogram is nothing to be afraid of. It's not an enemy but a friend. Early detection is the key to the cure.

With "We Are The World," I can't even eat when I watch that on television. If I'm eatin' some food, I have to put it down. I feel very strongly about that.

But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.

Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.