The nice thing about HOPE is that you can give it to someone else, someone who needs it even more than you do, and you will find you have not given yours away at all.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

If we are honest and fair, then we are known by that. If we are not, alas, we are known by that as well. What we want to do is do right, but you have to say it, you have to show it, and not stop.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

Life sometimes gives you a second chance.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I'll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, 'I'd like to write about that.' Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

Listen to some good poetry. You see? It keeps us from thinking we are only what our blatant appetites describe us as.