We need to make sure our children travel to see things. Not necessarily long distances but at least out of the neighborhood. On a train. A boat. An airplane.

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.

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.

Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.

Mistakes are a fact of life. If you are willing to be wrong then you have earned the right to be right.

I prefer her [Nina Simone's] jazz period much more so than her folk period.

Who I am really keeps surprising me.