When I was a kid no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.

I've been singing for six years. I've been in and out of the studios with top producers but it wasn't something I was ready to express to the public or to the press. I wasn't ready to come out. I wanted to perfect my voice and be 100 percent positive that I could come out right.

Politics was my third act. But I could have a fourth. I don't know what that will be yet but there will be one.

I think Karl Rove saw that in George W. Bush early on and understood the impact that he could have on Texas politics and probably on national politics.

So my degree was in political science which I think was - the closest I could come to marketing is politics.

I was totally absorbed in the real world the politics the history the news and I just couldn't find my way into the fictional world... When I finally could return to writing the novel it was in fits and starts.

I don't for the life of me understand how anybody could contemplate the results of the 2000 election in the US and say that electoral politics doesn't matter any more and that Ralph Nader was right when he said there is no difference between the two parties.

I could pose in fashion commercials as a high society star but politics is a new way of life.

I could have made a fortune in cheeseburgers but I finally chose politics.

George Clooney's 'Ides of March' could be the most under-appreciated movie of the year. In 20 years they're gonna go back and say 'Oh that was American politics in that time period.' I follow politics I love it and that movie is so authentic.

I think that politics could be a positive thing. My beef is that people focus on the personal aspect of a politician too much. They should focus on the results.

The term 'the American Left' is as near to being meaningless or nonsensical as any term could really be in politics. It isn't really a force in politics anymore. And it would do well to ask itself why that is.

Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President I'm beginning to believe it.

I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.

At this point we've answered about every question you could possibly imagine about Deep Space Nine so we do this thing called Theatrical Jazz where we do a show of bits and pieces of things from plays and literature poetry... stuff that we like. It's fun.

I heard Nirvana and discovered that songs could be like poetry but a little bit more refined: you didn't have to have 20 verses to get your point across.

But for me being an editor I've been an editor of all kinds of books being an editor of poetry has been the way in which I could give a crucial part of my time to what I love most.

And my father was a comic. He could play any musical instrument. He loved to perform. He was a wonderfully comedic character. He had the ability to dance and sing and charm and analyze poetry.

If you don't mark your successes the day your ship comes in could be just another day at the office and there's no poetry in that.

Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.

I'm quite sure that most writers would sustain real poetry if they could but it takes devotion and talent.

I hardly remember how I started to write poetry. It's hard to imagine what I thought poetry could do.

Poetry is a special use of language that opens onto the real. The business of the poet is truth telling which is why in the Celtic tradition no one could be a teacher unless he or she was a poet.