... this longing inside me that never goes away, must be a poem...must be you ...

...some nights I'd sneak out and listen to the radio in my Dad's old Chevy - children need solitude - they don't teach that in school...

...the wet brush of snowflakes was like your kisses everywhere ...

...no good writing flows from a polluted well - you can write about monsters, but you can't be one...

...I don't just wish you rain, Beloved - I wish you the beauty of storms...

...true love is an irrevocable act - you can only give your heart away once - after that, you give as much as you have left ...

...wherever there is society, there is authority and the temptation to disobedience because our individual wills refuse to submit...

...you think so logically...like a hawk soaring - I feel so chaotically...like a kite without a tail plummeting to earth...

...you fantasize about me reading my poems to you - it doesn't work that way - I write down everything later - living is not an after-thought...

...if you always move in certainty, your writing will be flat - creativity is a rugged terrain...

...is worship too strong a word? yes, I worship you - to worship is to give worth to something – isn’t that what love is all about?...

Love is the essence of life

I believe we owe it to each other to tell stories. It's as close to a credo as I have or will, I suspect, ever get.

Sometimes the storm winds blow so strong a man has no choice but to furl his sails.

The present no matter what I brought couldn’t change the past. The Past was set and sealed.

Good means not [merely] not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

When you think about your heritage, you think about toughness and hard work.

That’s all you really hope for from a book – that it’s going to resonate with young people and empower them in some way. I believe poetry can get kids reading.

Use a mirror in difficult times. You will see both cause and resolution.

Two wrongs don't make a right. No, but three will get you back on the freeway!

Still alive? (Randy) No. I’m a walking corpse. Can’t you tell? (Steele)