Every good poem asks a question, and every good poet asks every question.

Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's.

Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.

You are not your poetry. Your self-esteem shouldn't depend on whether you publish, or whether some editor or writer you admire thinks you're any good.

Better hazard once than always be in fear.

Compassion should be unbiased and based on the recognition that others have the right to happiness, just like you.

He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.

Every generation has the right to build its own world out of the materials of the past, cemented by the hopes of the future.

I'm not a flag waver for obesity. It's not healthy, and you have a crap life because there is such a downer on it.

When I want to go to sleep, I must first get a whole menagerie of voices to shut up. You wouldn't believe what a racket they make in my room.

My body has certainly wandered a good deal, but I have an uneasy suspicion that my mind has not wandered enough.

English culture is highly literary-based.

I lust love to play football.

The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it. The intangibles, the motivational parts of the game are the most important facets of it.