Poetry has to be something more than a conception of the mind. It has to be a revelation of nature. Conceptions are artificial. Perceptions are essential.

True villains are extremely photogenic.

All the great things have been denied and we live in an intricacy of new and local mythologies, political, economic, poetic, which are asserted with an ever-enlarging incoherence.

The day of the sun is like the day of a king. It is a promenade in the morning, a sitting on the throne at noon, a pageant in the evening.

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.

The imagination is one of the forces of nature.

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.

The way through the world is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.

I do not know which to prefer - The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.

It is not everyday that the world arranges itself into a poem.

We can't avoid reasoning

Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him and cannot be reasoned out.

Everyone has a worst time in their life. There's always a worse time. We are all either in a crisis, coming to one or coming out of one.

I never wanted to retire. I wanted to kind of shift my work pattern so I could stay fresh and invigorated, and use the experience that I had gained in 30 years, but in a slightly different direction.

If you really are superior, you don't go around saying you're superior - unless you're Jewish.

I am trying with all my skill to do a painting that is all woman, as well as all of me.

It is going to get worse before it gets better.

People are always backing up when I'm just going to shake their hands.

Just make sure your children hate authority and they'll do fine.

I've never been to rehab, I've never been to psychotherapy or the doctor or anything like that. I went to a church and I was prayed for, and I've always had a great relationship with God.