I want you to hear a new version of Dueling Banjos. Anyone else is welcome.

What you have to realize when you write poetry, or if you love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest god damn thing that ever was in the whole universe

A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.

Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.

I want a fever, in poetry: a fever, and tranquillity.

There are so many selves in everybody, and just to explore and exploit one is wrong, dead wrong, for the creative person.

I once had the nerve to ask Picasso the question, 'What is art?' He answered, 'Art is a lie which makes us see the truth.

I don’t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well.

To be precise and reckless: that is the consummation devoutly to be wished.

Poetry makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world.

Find out what you do best, and then don't do it.

No work for grace. It can only be received through faith in Jesus Christ.

All that falls is not bad.

Writing is a solitary business. It’s just you and your characters and a blank page you need to fill.

Angels constantly guard the clients of this Blessed Virgin from the assaults of Hell.

I have a big ego, and I'm a confident person, but when it comes down to being a jerk, that doesn't work for me, I tried it... for about ten years.

The price of tapping water into every house is that no one values water any more.

I think about legacy a lot, hopefully at the end of the day they say I was a good bluesman. That's all I want.

While I still have more good days than bad days, I'm going to keep playing.

How, unless you drink as I do, could you hope to understand the beauty of an old Indian woman playing dominoes with a chicken?

For in religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the least sincere.