The poem has a social effect of some kind whether or not the poet wills it to have. It has a kenetic force, it sets in motion...elements in the reader that would otherwise remain stagnant.

You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.

Both art and faith are dependent on imagination; both are ventures into the unknown.

I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer.

Nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, the deep intelligence living at peace would have.

It's when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know the taint in our own selves, that awe cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart.

Grief is a hole you walk around in the daytime and at night you fall into it.

In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.

Marvelous Truth, confront us at every turn, in every guise.

One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language.

But for us the road unfurls itself, we don't stop walking, we know there is far to go.

Everything that happens in our lives has meaning even though we may not understand it or even pay attention to it.

I hated sports. I hated sports, and I hated people who played them, and I hated people who watched them, and Ihated people who didn't hate people who watched or played them.

To hold the power of affection and maintain the roots of love, you must stay trusted.

Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.

Your reward will be the widening of the horizon as you climb. And if you achieve that reward you will ask no other.

For this beauty, beauty without strength, chokes out life.

All god wants us to do is do what he asks us to do.

When I'm not working on the ground, spending time with my husband and daughter puts me at ease.