I went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

I need to do well and show I’m a worthy driver in F1.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston, I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, ‚Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.‘

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S.

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.

We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.

Is the Iranian record of intervention and terror worse than that of the U.S.?

Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I’ll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master… it’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.

I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president’s birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing ‚Happy Birthday,‘ like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, ‚Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!‘

How wonderful it is to be an American. We have known the best of times and the worst of times.

Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

The writing is important, but the way you say the line and the pause you give it, the facial expression – all of that is very important.

I get really motivated when I put on the India jersey. It is a responsibility, so I want to perform in the best way I can.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

I can’t make a song for a particular person or demographic. If I love it, I’m gonna do it. I have to perform it for the rest of my life. A song is like a tattoo – you can never get away from it.

When you come to my show, I want it to feel like opera, like a theatre.

It is one thing to record an album but it’s a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it.

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.

Iraq is a long way from the U.S., but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face.

The main problem with writing in verse is, if your fourth line doesn’t come out right, you’ve got to throw four lines away and figure out a whole new way to attack the problem. So the mortality rate is terrific.

No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.

Right after 9-11, as far as I know, one newspaper in the United States had the integrity to investigate opinion in the Muslim world: the ‚Wall Street Journal.‘

To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

I usually don’t like to ‚spoon feed‘ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.

Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

I won’t be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn’t mean I want them to stop looking.

In business, the idea of measuring what you are doing, picking the measurements that count like customer satisfaction and performance… you thrive on that.

In the United States, one of the main topics of academic political science is the study of attitudes and policy and their correlation. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy in the United States: heavily-polled society, pretty serious and accurate polls, and policy you can see, and you can compare them.

As the poet said, ‚Only God can make a tree,‘ probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.

Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.

I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman – not me, not Bill, nobody – more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

The U.S. increasingly has taken on the characteristics of what we describe as ‚failed states.‘

The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States – and war is what they got.

Whatever I am, it’s natural… I don’t have to pretend to be aggressive, don’t have to show the opposition that I am on the field. Being aggressive comes naturally to me, helps me perform.

I was acting when I was playing baseball.

I don’t think it is so difficult to solve the problems between Cuba and the United States; it all depends on whether there is a dialogue, a discussion, or if the prejudices and hatred of people like the extremists and terrorists from the Cuban community, who try to impose their policies, prevail.

In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.

I can’t act!

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

If you destroyed half the pharmaceutical production in the United States, we’d think it’s a pretty serious problem. In fact, we’d probably go to war.

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

In case you’re wondering whether I lip synch, the answer is no… people think so because I sound so good.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.

The United States strongly seeks a lasting agreement for the discontinuance of nuclear weapons tests. We believe that this would be an important step toward reduction of international tensions and would open the way to further agreement on substantial measures of disarmament.

I love being in the United States Senate.

Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton.

Why should Iran have a deterrent strategy? Well, it’s surrounded by hostile enemies. Both of its borders have been under occupation by a hostile superpower, the United States, which is constantly violating the U.N. charter by leaving open what they call the saying, ‚all options are open‘ – meaning the threat of war.

The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

At first, I was called a quack, a charlatan, and worse, year after year, in Australia, England and the United States, by men who simply refused to believe that a nurse from ‚the bush‘ could devise a treatment which succeeded where they had failed.