Give me, indulgent gods with mind serene, And guiltless heart, to range the sylvan scene, No splendid poverty, no smiling care, No well-bred hate, or servile grandeur, there.

How blessings brighten as they take their flight.

Too low they build who build below the skies.

A soul without reflection, like a pile Without inhabitant, to ruin runs.

Narcissus is the glory of his race: For who does nothing with a better grace?.

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man!... Midway from nothing to the Deity!

Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to heaven.

The clouds may drop down titles and estates, and wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought.

Where boasting ends, there dignity begins.

Who lives to Nature, rarely can be poor ; who lives to fancy, never can be rich.

Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels; how heavily we drag the load of life!

Mom laughed. "Well that's why, when it's real, you do whatever you have to do to work it out. Screw stability. Forget common sense. Make a move.

Watching the summer close is like watching a good kid die for no apparent reason.

He's dreaming with his eyes open, and those that dream with their eyes open are dangerous, for they do not know when their dreams come to an end.

People react positively when things are clear and understandable.

Until women can visualize the sacred female they cannot be whole and society cannot be whole.

I'm reading a bunch of fiction by Afghan and Iraq War veterans for a New Yorker piece. There hasn't been that much, but it's starting to come out, and some of the fiction is really good.

A lot of writing takes place in the subconscious, and it's bound to have an effect.

The point of existence is not to find the most powerful thing you can imagine and then grovel before it.

As a young, Black man in America, I look out and (realize) that our community is the most affected by HIV.

It reinforced everything that I believe. I am an optimist. I believe in the goodness of people.