If we admit our depression openly and freely, those around us get from it an experience of freedom rather than the depression itself.

Something is born, comes into being, something that did not exist before - which is as good a definition of creativity as we can get.

Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.

The poet, like the lover, is a menace on the assembly line.

Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell.

The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.

Every act of genuine creativity means achieving a higher level of self-awareness and personal freedom.