There is no objection to the proposal: in order to learn to be a poet, I shall try to write a sonnet. But the thing you must try to write, when you do so, is a real sonnet, and not a practice sonnet.

The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.

Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.

The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.

Babies are not brought by storks and poets are not produced by workshops.

Hearing that the same men who brought us 'South Park' were mounting a musical to be called 'The Book of Mormon,' we were tempted to turn away, as from an inevitable massacre.

One does not become a guru by accident.

Windbags can be right. Aphorists can be wrong. It is a tough world.

In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular music.

My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple subjects - love, death, war.

English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.

The first time is always the hardest

Love's weaknesses are better than hate's strengths.

Humans have voids, and you need things to fill voids... I didn't have a dad to fill that male model void, so when I heard Eminem or freaking seen Dave Chapelle, that's what I gravitated to.

America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?

Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.

Our strategy was to give Judge Hoffman a heart attack. We gave the court system a heart attack, which is even better.

I am still a socialist. I am a left-of-center politician. I believe that in Africa, if you see the poverty around us, you can't afford to be anything else.

But for the most part, love is a recognition, an opportunity to say, 'There is something about you I cherish.

Good comedians are great philosophers.

It's not having been in the Dark House, but having left it that counts.