If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

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.

Hundreds of people who’ve never written before send in ‚Dr. Who‘ scripts. They may have good ideas, but what they fail to realise is that writing for TV is incredibly complicated. They have no idea how difficult it is and what the financial commitment is.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

If you love something – and there are things that I love – you do want more and more and more of it, but that’s not the way to produce good work. So as an author, I need to write what I need to write.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

The book that convinced me I wanted to be a writer was ‚Crime and Punishment‘. I put the thing down after reading it in a fever over two or three days… I said, ‚If this is what a book can be, then that is what I want to do.‘

Long stormy spring-time, wet contentious April, winter chilling the lap of very May; but at length the season of summer does come.

A boy’s story is the best that is ever told.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

Life is better when people are working, happy, and spending money.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

So many writers don’t like to write… I like to write, and sometimes I’m afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don’t want to leave it. And as a result, I’ll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

I do sometimes look back at things I’ve written in the past, and think, ‚I just don’t remember being the person who wrote that.‘

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles.

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.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

Sure, women sportswriters look when they’re in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.

I dwell in possibility.

I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems… It’s got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

I like learning more about people; I like to talk to people.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?

I was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn’t understand it then, but now, now I understand it.

The greatest story of all is Colonel Sanders. He didn’t start until he was sixty-six on a freeway bypass for his chicken shop. Anything is possible!

I think you get most of the most interesting work done in fields where people don’t think they’re doing art but are merely practicing a craft and working as good craftsmen. Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.

I like sitting and writing with my buddies.

I never dreamt, in my dream, I’m Dalai Lama.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

I read poetry to save time.

The way to know life is to love many things.

I have my favorite cat, who is my paperweight, on my desk while I am writing.

If you’re nice to me I’ll never write anything bad about you.

Diana Ross is a big inspiration to all of us. We all grew up watching everything about her – her mike placement, her grace, her style and her class.

Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.

Nobody should come to the movies unless he believes in heroes.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

I’m not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.