Whenever I go anywhere but Italy for a vacation, I always feel vaguely disappointed, as if I have made a mistake.

Poetry is the inner life of a culture, its nervous system, its deepest way of imagining the world. A culture that ignores its poets, chokes off its nervous system and becomes mortally ill.

Is a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember?

We don't have a clear path forward, and that's been the case for feminism since the 18th century, when the idea of the rights of women actually began.

Images are ... a kind of emotional shorthand.

Hate generalizes; love is particular.

The truth is simple, you do not die from love. You only wish you did.