I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.

The First Book: Go ahead, it won't bite. Well... maybe a little. More a nip, like. A tingle. It's pleasurable, really. You see, it keeps on opening. You may fall in. Sure, it's hard to get started; remember learning to use knife and fork? Dig in: you'll never reach bottom. It's not like it's the end of the world -- just the world as you think you know it.

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now