democracy is dying. We are ruled by faceless bureaucrats and lecherous puritans. ... You think about it. 'All right for me but not for you' is their philosophy.

Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.

Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.

The sea is as near as we come to another world.

A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.

I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.

There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.

There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.

Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.

Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.

Economists are generally negligent of their heroes.

I didn’t see the point of judging and analyzing a single moment in someone’s life.

I've been sober for 25. And every day I am very grateful that I don't drink.

Leaders need the courage to acknowledge when something isn't working.

Anytime I'm given scripts where I'm sort of the fantasy girl, it's hard for me because that's not real and I don't think it's a great thing to put out there consistently.

The Jews run all the banks. Well, we do. The Jews run the media. Well, we do. You know, I mean they're right about all that stuff.

It makes you realize that people are the same wherever you go.

I am willing to serve my country, but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it.

An actor's career doesn't feel like just one career to me. It feels like about five or six. Because every six or seven years, you look in the mirror and you have a completely different product.