The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.

Music is like film to me.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.

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 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.

It’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.

Just as I wanted to outdo everyone when I played, I had to outdo everyone when we were out on the town.

Hell is a half-filled auditorium.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they’re not trying to keep up with you.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

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

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered… to feel she is the most important thing in someone’s world. Only a man can paint this picture.

A man makes you feel important – makes you glad you are a woman.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

God looks after children, animals and idiots.

Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

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

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever. I’m not really book-smart.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. The majestic crowns approaching one another make a glorious canopy, through the feathery arches of which the sunbeams pour, silvering the needles and gilding the stately columns and the ground into a scene of enchantment.

Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.

When I ask OGs why there’s so much division in the streets, nobody never really knows. But you know one thing that everybody always mention? A woman.

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

I don’t like perfumes that are too strong or sweet. I like a fragrance that is earthy and sensual and can be worn at any time.

Woman’s at best a contradiction still.

But time has set its maggot on their track.

People say I look so happy – and I say, ‚That’s the Botox.‘

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume.

I read the Bible to myself; I’ll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is.

God gave me some weird, beautiful scent that makes men and women go crazy. People compare it to Carvel. It is a whale of a smell.

The poet gives us his essence, but prose takes the mold of the body and mind.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God’s final word on where your lips end.

No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

I’ve been writing poems since I was in the Navy – to Rosalynn. I found I could say things in poems that I never could in prose. Deeper, more personal things. I could write a poem about my mother that I could never tell my mother. Or feelings about being on a submarine that I would have been too embarrassed to share with fellow submariners.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.

There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.

Mine is better than ours.