If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.

Without defeats, how do you really know who the hell you are? If you never had to stand up to something - to get up, to be knocked down, and to get up again - life can walk over you wearing football cleats. But each time you do get up, you're bigger, taller, finer, more beautiful, more kind, more understanding, more loving. Each time you get up, you're more inclusive. More people can stand under your umbrella.

The area where we are the greatest is the area in which we inspire, encourage and connect with another human being.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

We can only know where we're going if we know where we've been.

I think all poems are commissioned. They just come to me without somebody outside commissioning them. The idea comes and I will live with them 'til I get it as close to what I mean. I've never been totally satisfied. I've come close a few times.