A poet laureate of adolescent sexuality and middle-age longing.

The very essence of school is elitism. Schools exist to teach, to test, to rank hierarchically to promote the idea that knowing and understanding more is better than knowing and understanding less.

In my mind, partial failure is always better than delusory success.

Where a generation ago people felt entitled to a chance at education, they now feel entitled to the credential affirming that they have completed a course of study regardless of their actual mastery.

The fact is that some people are better than others - smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace.

Any departure from fact is the first step on a slippery slope toward unbelievability.

The dominant mood of contemporary American culture is the self-celebration of the peasantry.