Iife/personality must be taken as a total entity. All of your life is all of your life, and no one incident stands alone.

I am honest; I try to be truthful. I like people and wish us well. We are not always deserving of our own best wishes.

Nina Simone's music is incredibly honest. That's like saying, "Why does Jesus' word still stay around?" It's incredibly honest and it's good.

Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.

Poetry is the most informative of all of the arts because everything comes down to poetry. No matter what it is we are describing, ultimately we use either a metaphor; or we say "that's poetry in motion." You drink a glass of wine and say, "that's poetry in a bottle." Everything is poetry, so I think we come down to emotional information. And that's what poetry conveys.

A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die.

You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you'll never write.