There is so much about the process of writing that is mysterious to me, but this one thing I've found to be true: writing begets writing.

You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake.

Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's.

That's how it is sometimes--God comes to your window, all bright light and black wings, and you're just too tired to open it.

A poem is like a child; at some point we have to let it go and trust that it will make its own way in the world.

Every good poem asks a question, and every good poet asks every question.

Every poem I write falls short in some important way. But I go on trying to write the one that won’t.

I have always loved too much, or not enough.

We continue to speak, if only in whispers, to something inside us that longs to be named.

Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.

Maybe it's what we don't say/that saves us.

A true ruler does not rule others, he rules himself.

Never give your opinion on someone's writing unless they ask sincerely, and never ask for someone's opinion unless you're sincere.

I lost in '96, in case the word hadn't trickled out, and so I made a few commercials.

Being at the mercy of the acting profession, in the early days of one's career, is really brutal and feels like you have no control over your life, at all.

I hope the Spice Girls will come back, although it may be beyond even Bob Geldof to get that to happen.

I remember, particularly, a trip to Bosnia where the welcoming ceremony had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.

I'd never kill myself for a man. I wouldn't do it for anybody.

Death frees from the fear of dying

There is a book yearning to come out of me: about how we can build the new collaboration economy, and the role of 'openness' in our quest for efficient use of resources and as a driver of innovation.

One by one, I could find a house that somebody had restored properly, and then another one, and now it's like a virus. Everybody in Palm Springs wants to do it.