the wasting of time is the most personal, most private, most intimate form of conversation with oneself, as well as with another.

I have become an orchid washed in on the salt white beach. Memory, what can I make of it now that might please you- this life, already wasted and still strewn with miracles?

A poem is a finished work of the mind, it is not the work of a finished mind.

We are all one question, and the best answer seems to be love—a connection between things.

In life, the number of beginnings is exactly equal to the number of endings ... In poetry, the number of beginnings so far exceeds the number of endings that we cannot even conceive of it.

in the beginning William Shakespeare was a baby, and knew absolutely nothing. He couldn't even speak.

I'm lucky enough to occasionally be able to do something I love - write poems - and unlucky enough that what I love confuses and overwhelms me.

Art has always been aware of itself as art.

In our marginal existence, what else is there but this voice within us, this great weirdness we are always leaning forward to listen to?

In the end I would rather wonder than know

The origins of poetry are clearly rooted in obscurity, in secretiveness, in incantation, in spells that must at once invoke and protect, tell the secret and keep it.

But the second she opened her eyes and looked at me, I knew. She was either going to be the death of me . . . or she was going to be the one who finally brought me back to life.

Truth in art is the unity of a thing with itself

You are capable of fulfilling your dream.

Come back!" the Caterpillar called after her. "I've something important to say."This sounded promising, certainly. Alice turned and came back again."Keep your temper, " said the Caterpillar.

I was very strict on that point. No devouring classmates." Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Other parents warn their kids not to talk to strangers. I had to warn mine not to eat them.

In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.

No one on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time on my business."

Important decisions are risky. They should be controversial. Acclamation means that nobody has done the homework.

Why should I be worried about dying? It's not going to happen in my lifetime!

The potential of your body is endless.