To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

If you don't know how great this country is, I know someone who does; Russia.

Life is tons of discipline. Your first discipline is your vocabulary; then your grammar and your punctuation Then, in your exuberance and bounding energy you say you're going to add to that. Then you add rhyme and meter. And your delight is in that power.

It's hard to get into this world and hard to get out of it, and what's in between doesn't make much sense.

The first thing I do in the morning is to make my bed and while I am making up my bed I am making up my mind as to what kind of a day I am going to have.

A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.