In fact a lot of them I think are absolute baloney. Those Charles Olsens and people like that. At first I was interested in seeing what they were up to, what they were doing, why they were doing it. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry.

My first job was as an assistant in the local library. Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Jodi Picoult

Government health care changes the relationship between the citizen and the state, and, in fact, I think it's an assault on citizenship.

Mark Steyn

If you were going to choose a way of making your way in this world and a place to start from, you might not choose poetry and you might not choose Huddersfield.

Simon Armitage

A liberal is a power worshipper without the power.

George Orwell

You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.

Van Morrison

Today, you have 100% of your life left.

Tom Hopkins

It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites --opposite bents, tastes, yearnings, loyalties. Where there is no polarity --where energies flow smoothly in one direction --there will be much doing but no music.

Eric Hoffer

I've been over what I'm supposed to say and I've got to tell you, it's pretty persuasive stuff, but is it the whole truth It's a slice of truth, a morsel, a fraction. It's a piece of the pie, certainly not the whole enchilada, and now that I've been thinking about it, I don't think I could tell the whole truth about anything. That's a pretty heavy burden, because we all just view the world through this little piece of coke bottle. Is there such a thing as objective truth I wonder.

Jeff Melvoin

If I didn't try to eavesdrop on every bus ride I take or look for the humor when I go for a walk, I would just be depressed all the time.

Lynda Barry

Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.

Victor Hugo

The last act is tragic, however happy all the rest of the play is; at the last a little earth is thrown upon our head, and that is the end for ever.

Blaise Pascal

My greatest strength as a child, I realize now, was my imagination. While every other kid was reading and writing, I had seven whole hours a day to practice my imagination. When do you get that space in your life, ever?

Barbara Corcoran