"A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair."

"Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance."

"Always fall in with what you're asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. Not against: with."

"A successful lawsuit is the one worn by a policeman."

"To really be centered and to really work well and to think about the kinds of things that I need to think about, I need to spend large amounts of time alone."

"Human beings are the only creatures who are able to behave irrationally in the nameof reason."

"We're all sick of holy wars and bloodshed because religion is supposed to give us life and a better life and is supposed to bring out our best self. When it results in mass destruction and hatred and anxiety, it's the antithesis I think of what religion was designed to do."

"He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak."