Poems are language turned into art; sound and sense matter; they can be as long or longer than The Odyssey or as short or shorter than a haiku. Not very helpful.

People who publish poetry today do it from a sense that poetry needs to be published, not because they think they are going to make money.

Poetry resonates differently in each culture; it doesn't in America.

I like each of my books to be different. Once I've done something I like to move on and push myself to learn new things and expand the limits of poetic form.

Many other cultures value poetry more than we do. In Ireland, poetry is a top cultural pursuit, the art to end all arts.

A poem employs both the sound and the sense of language, it treats words not just as signifiers but as a plastic medium of artistic expression.

I tend to write poetry that is rich in data of various sorts. The lyric poem isn't perfectly suited to accommodating such data, so I've had to find new ways to say everything that I want to say.

The culture stays alive, but certain parts of it die or fail, and that's very interesting to me.

It's not surprising to me that books ended up playing a central role in my life, but it is somewhat mysterious that poetry did.

Underneath the chaos there stirs a great plan. And it will be birthed only if I give it permission to do so because I have exercised the faith that it’s there.

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.

The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, which separates us from God and produces so many spiritual disorders, and which are contagious, is selfishness.

No one of intelligence resents the inevitable.

Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

As long as there are a few people there, I can lose myself, which is the ultimate goal. And that's happening more and more; the non-musical world is becoming less and less interesting to me.

No resource will flourish if managed by government.

Punk is just like any other sub culture or music. Straight rock music has those elements. I grew up in a place where the punk rock kids fed the homeless in the town square.

If you expect the wise man to be as angry as the baseness of crimes requires, then he must not only be angry but go insane.

Warren Beatty once told me that if someone's really stuck on you, find them their next boyfriend. But I could never do that.