You have an advantage that neither education nor upbringing can buy - you have almost nothing. And therefore you have almost nothing to lose.

Without self belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible.

If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly and even catastrophically, you will never be rich.

Sometimes, to ensure that a talented individual will work for you, or will stay working with you, you need to be flexible. Money is not always the great motivator here. Talented people want a good salary, of course, but surprisingly often they are more attracted to new opportunities and challenges.

I hear poets complaining: 'We face what our forebears did not face. We face TV. We face radio. We face this and that.'

I think having a great idea is vastly overrated. I know it sounds kind of crazy and counterintuitive. I don't think it matters what the idea is, almost. You need great execution.

I want to prove that if you write in strict meter and rhyme about subjects people care about, they will buy poetry.