I am fascinated with criminal law because it is as rigorous as a poem and because it is based on what has been written down even before one has committed a crime.

I wanted many of the poems to have long legs. At first I was calling them clothespin poems, before I knew what I was doing. The lines seem pulled on either end, tight and taut against the wind.

Poetry is the skin that I have between my body and the world's body.

I want a poem which is made of compression, passion, precision, symmetry, & disruption.

That's what interests me in poetry. That withholding, that white space, the pressure, and my long-term faith in violent concision, is still with me.

I came to poetry because I felt I couldn't live properly in the real world.

At the heart of my life is the idea that I don't ever want anything to ever change. That's the basic tenet.

Every thing is changing every minute.

Confession may well be a dirty word in poetry.

Happiness [is] only real when shared

The closest bonds we will ever know are bonds of grief. The deepest community one of sorrow.

It's the bullies who are afraid, are the ones that do all the fighting. It's not the secure kids that get out there and fight. It's the insecure kids.

Every situation has changed me as a person.

Every time Mexico really intelligently sends people over, we charge Mexico $100,000 for every person they send over.

We need emotional outlets in this country, and the more artistic people we develop the better it will be for us as a nation.

The measure of progress of civilization is the progress of the people.

For plague and pestilence, plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea and the air are the concern of every nation.

Stop using the word 'Negro.' The word is a misnomer from every point of view. It does not represent a country or anything else ... I am an African-American.

At first, I thoroughly enjoyed being famous.