I'm convinced that I'm a child of God. That's wonderful, exhilarating, liberating, full of promise. But the burden which goes along with that is, I'm convinced that everybody is a child of God. . . . I weep a lot. I thank God I laugh a lot, too. The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.

I like to go back and read poems that I wrote fifty years ago, twenty years ago, and sometimes they surprise me - I didn't know I knew that then. Or maybe I didn't know it then, and I know more now.

I thought if I could face the worst danger voluntarily, and triumph, I would forever have power over it.

Only equals make friends, every other relationship is contrived and off balance.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Every Day you should reach out and touch someone

The public library building, in my view, is just a little lower than the church, the cathedral, the temple, the synagogue and the mosque. Within those walls and along those stacks, I have found security and assurance.