The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears

The marvelous thing about a good question is that it shapes our identity as much by the asking as it does by the answering.

Poetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force yourself to articulate your life, your present world or your possibilities for the future.

In England especially, poetry's woven into the background fabric of society. And in Ireland, it's in the foreground. The place of the poet in Irish society is enormous. If you say you're a poet in Ireland, you'd better know what you're doing, because the standard and the expectations are incredibly high.

A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but the child will surprise you continually. I think a work of art has its own aliveness, its own future.

Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future.

Heartbreak is how we mature... There is almost no path a human being can follow that does not lead to heartbreak.