Art is communication.

I rebel against death, yet I know that it is how I respond to death's inevitability that is going to make me less or more fully alive.

There is no way that you can read the entire Bible seriously and take every word literally. Contradictions start in the first chapter of Genesis. There are two Creation stories, two stories of the making of Adam and Eve. And that is all right. The Bible is still true.

I have never lived before...Until this summer, I did not know what it was to be alive.

It is possible to suffer and despair an entire lifetime and still not give up the art of laughter.

In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet…There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That’s a very strict rhythm or meter…And each line has to end with a rigid pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet…But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants…You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.

Goodness has never been a guarantee of safety.