She was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves.

We don't ask a flower any special reason for its existence. We just look at it and are able to accept it as being something different from ourselves.

Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, "Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night." You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along.

Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.

Poetry is life distilled.

I don't want people running around saying Gwen Brooks's work is intellectual. That makes people think instantly about obscurity. It shouldn't have to mean that, but it often seems to.

When you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you're telling them that they're less than somebody else.