Write out of love, write out of instinct, write out of reason. But always for money.

Every poet knows the pun is Pierian, that it springs from the same soil as the Muse?a matching and shifting of vowels and consonants, an adroit assonance sometimes derided as jackassonance.

Life, alas, is very drear. Up with the glass! Down with the beer!

God, though this life is but a wraith, Although we know not what we use, Although we grope with little faith, Give me the heart to fight and lose.

Friendship is like love at its best; not blind but sympathetically all-seeing; a support which does not wait for understanding; an act of faith which does not need, but always has, reason.

Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable.

Nothing but blackness above And nothing that moves but the cars... God, if you wish for our love, Fling us a handful of stars!

Come, drink the mystic wine of Night, Brimming with silence and the stars; While earth, bathed in this holy light, Is seen without its scars.

Laughter shall drown the raucous shout; And, though these shelt'ring walls are thin, May they be strong to keep hate out And hold love in.

Why has our poetry eschewed The rapture and response of food? What hymns are sung, what praises said For home-made miracles of bread?

From compromise and things half done, Keep me with stern and stubborn pride; And when at last the fight is won, God, keep me still unsatisfied.

The devil is a professional in destroying lives, but the problem is that people themselves allow him to destroy their lives

God's command 'Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature' was the categorical imperative. The question of personal safety was wholly irrelevant.

It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.

It is not the purpose of literature to purvey news. For news consult the Almanac de Gotha.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body; there you have a solid place for your feet.

The strongest thing that baseball has going for it today are its yesterdays.

Go to bed early, get up early-this is wise.

Right. Because there’s no bigger sign of commitment than a Halloween dance

If anyone ever boos you off stage, that is simply applause from ghosts.

To be beautiful, woman enough to have a black sweater, black skirt and walk arm in arm with the man she loves.