You deserve whoever governs you ... Everyone is responsible for the actions of their leaders.

Grief is not productive. It simply represents an inefficiency in accepting change of status.

Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.

All it takes to get elected in twenty-first-century America is a mob of frightened sheep and a wolf with a nice smile.

Altruism is masked self-interest. Aggressive self-interest is a masked urge to self-destruction.

To fight an enemy properly, you have to know what they are. Ignorance is defeat.

It's been a great place to get in touch with what people are really thinking. And to make contact with readers and other writers. Egalitarian, wide open, like the Wild West!

Apocalypse could not be repealed by the democratic process.

Conservatism is not about tradition and morality, hasn't been for many decades... It is about the putative biological and spiritual superiority of the wealthy.

The price of freedom—of individuality—is attention to politics, careful planning, careful organization; philosophy is no more a barrier against political disaster than it is against plague.

There is no war so important that to win it, we must destroy our minds.

Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry--I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die.

The worst curse to befall anyone is stagnation, a banal existence, the quiet desperation that comes out of a need for conformity.

Love born of anxiety resembles a thorn shaped so that efforts to pull it out of one's flesh merely cause it to penetrate more deeply therein.

If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul

Frying gives cooks numerous ways of concealing what appeared the day before and in a pinch facilitates sudden demands, for it takes little more time to fry a four-pound carp than to boil an egg.

Reality Hunger is more than thought-provoking; it's one of the most beautiful books I've read in a long time.

Ted Hughes has been appointed poet laureate to succeed Sir John Betjeman, which is a bit like appointing a grim young crow to replace a cuddly old teddy bear.

[I'm a conscious parent when I] believe that my child is here to teach me as much about myself and how I need to grow, as I am here to teach them.

More precious is want with honesty than wealth with infamy.

Motivation is when you get hold of an idea and carry it through to its conclusion, inspiration is the reverse. An idea gets hold of you and carries you where you are intended to go.