Write the poem only you can write.

One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else.

A motto I've adopted is, if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried.

The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper.

Poetry is like standing on the edge of a lake on a moonlit night and the light of the moon is always pointing straight at you.

Nationalism is a type of insanity in which the boundaries of a land replace God.

In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.

But my heart is always propped up in a field on its tripod, ready for the next arrow.

But tonight, the lion of contentment has placed a warm heavy paw on my chest.

While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the windowpane.

So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

At the heart of all anger, all grudges, and all resentment, you'll always find a fear that hopes to stay anonymous.

I find a certain degree of loneliness not only tolerable but deeply pleasurable.

Besides Zeus on his throne, Justice has her seat.

Oh, there ain't no love, no Montagues or CapuletsJust banging tunes and DJ setsAnd dirty dancefloors and dreams of naughtinessI Bet that You Look Good on the Dancefloor

I have learnt a good deal from my own talk.

Get out of the way as quickly as you're not needed.

At Wal-Mart, if you couldn't explain an idea or a concept in simple terms on one page of paper Sam Walton considered the new idea too complicated to implement.

We have a centrist nationalist group of people in this country, lots of them, and we have a socialist group of people in this country, lots of them. And that's not, to me, the American idea.

Every once in a while, someone will mail me a single popcorn kernel that didn't pop. I'll get out a fresh kernel, tape it to a piece of paper and mail it back to them.