No man can discover his own talents.

New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment... a place where you're least likely to be bitten by a wild goat.

The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.

It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.

I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.

They took away our land, our language, and our religion; but they could never harness our tongues.

The terrorist is the one with the small bomb.

I only take a drink on two occasions - when I'm thirsty and when I'm not.

I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.

The only thing I envy in young people is their livers.

My parents were kind enough to spend hours talking to me.

Our imagination it is our greatest ally . . . Imagination is a very, very powerful thing. It literally invents the path before you.

The Supreme Court raises the question, what kind of country will we be? The Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people, not on the side of the powerful, wealthy.

First, I write down all I know about the story, at length and in detail. Then I sink the iceberg and let some of it float up just a little.

I'd better be a poet Or lay down dead.

There's something honorable about holding out for love and not breaking up for the sake of the baby. I see people get divorced, and there is a part of me that thinks, I wonder how hard they tried?

Whitney Houston's voice was the very first voice I fell in love with. She was the voice that made me want to become a singer.

I have complete freedom, and there's no way to get pigeonholed or bored. What could be better than that?

A great deal of love given to a few is better than a little to many.

My life all-around is really different than a lot of other poets. Not poets that are parents, too, but just that I can hardly find anyone who works in the industries that I've worked in.