I feel that my father's greatest legacy was the people he inspired to get involved in public service and their communities, to join the Peace Corps, to go into space. And really that generation transformed this country in civil rights, social justice, the economy and everything.

In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

Poetry is really a way of sharing feelings and ideas.

People don't always realize that my parents shared a sense of intellectual curiosity and a love of reading and of history.

I don't remember my father reading to me, but I remember him telling me bedtime stories. I got to pick what was in them, and then he'd make them up.

In a funny way, poems are suited to modern life. They're short, they're intense. Nobody has time to read a 700-page book. People read magazines, and a poem takes less time than an article.

The amazing thing about the winners is that none of them really felt that they were doing anything special. They just felt like it was the right thing to do.