If any of you are secret poets, the best way to break into print is to run for the presidency.

The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is its inefficiency.

Let us pick up again these lost strands and weave them again into the fabric of America, sort out the music from the sounds and again respond to the trumpet and the steady drum.

If you're in the penaut business you learn to think small.

You know when I first thought I might have a chance? When I realized that you could go into any bar in the country and insult Lyndon Johnson and nobody would punch you in the nose.

Whatever is morally necessary must be made politically possible.

There is a long-standing tradition in America of scoffing at poets, especially if they show any interest in politics.