I'm really interested in culture because it is such a powerful human force, particularly in America where we think it's all about the individual.

I like to use research to enlarge the poem. And sometimes a rhetorical or syntactical gesture stitches the poem along.

It's extremely important that, as writers, we give a voice to those who don't have voices, including the other animals that we share the planet with and the places that are endangered or being lost.

Once you realize that human actions affect every bit of earth and sky, you realize that the environment isn't just what surrounds us - it's all one whole.

I am a result of what has happened on this planet - how could I find the art to say that? I can't, and yet, I am drawn to it because of the enormity of it. That seems really important.

Bringing science into poetry is one way of acknowledging some of the richest stuff that is in my cultural moment.

I've been accused of darkness by my inner light.

I don't know much about death and the sorriest lesson I've learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone's dying.

What keeps me level is the refusal to let the best of human aspirations die in the face of the challenges. I make a moral decision to be hopeful.

We're nature. Our minds are nature. Our desire to make poetry is nature.

As writers, the world is not about individual expression entirely because we are producing works of literature and getting them out into the world.

At times we must forgive others even when they don’t deserve it. We forgive them because we deserve it. Free yourself.

There are two kinds of perfect: The one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself.

I enjoyed writing for someone elses voice, but I wasnt very good at it.

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living.

I fight authority and authority always wins.

People are going deaf because music is played louder and louder, but because they're going deaf, it has to be played louder still.

Whatever you do in life, don't give up on your own dreams.

It is an imprudence common to kings to listen to too much advice and to err in their choice.

All is a play in consciousness. All divisions are illusory. You can know the false only. The true you must yourself be.

It's almost a standard tactic, really, to try to minimize any effort that people in the entertainment business or in any public occupation make to express themselves.