When you defile the pleasant streams, And the wild bird's abiding place, You massacre a million dreams, And cast your spittle in God's face

For while the subjects of poetry are few and recurrent, the moods of man are infinitely various and unstable. It is the same in all arts.

Poetry being the sign of that which all men desire, even though the desire be unconscious, intensity of life or completeness of experience, the universality of its appeal is a matter of course.

If it is an imperfect word, no external circumstance can heighten its value as poetry.

Poetry is the communication through words of certain experiences that can be communicated in no other way.

To know anything of a poet but his poetry is, so far as the poetry is concerned, to know something that may be entertaining, even delightful, but is certainly inessential.

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

This be my pilgrimage and goal Daily to march and find The secret phrases of the soul, The evangels of the mind.

There can be no proof that Blake's lyric is composed of the best words in the best order; only a conviction, accepted by our knowledge and judgment, that it is so.

In the corridors under tehre is nothing but sleep. And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep On moon-washed apples of wonder.

When the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with life.

Success and failure are options equally available to all, the dividing line is your choices and opportunities harnessed or missed.

If you watch any good player, they're using different parts of their body and working with instruments that respond to those movements. They're moving in many dimensions at once.

I like to get away from noise, although I will play noisy music in my car to keep myself awake. But my ears need a rest sometimes. I do enjoy listening to classical music.

There is not one shred of evidence that the Internet has had any downward influence on North American or European newspaper circulation.

Thinking up jokes is easy. The hard part is trying them out on stage, because you never know if they're funny until you get there. Not one comedian in the world ever really knows.

Eventually you will go into samadhi. Samadhi is a very advanced meditation. You dissolve into the clear light of eternity again and again.

I think we just have to remember who the heck we are and speak to who we are and what we believe.

Poetry comes out of an elite experience, the experience of people whose ears are opened to the song of the universe.

Do I feel pressure being a young player with high expectations? Nah.

Music can always serve a role in people's lives when it's emotional and warm and inviting and beautiful.