A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.

This career essentially chased me down while I was on the spoken-word scene in New York. I kept hearing that my delivery of my poetry - which was very personal and cathartic at the time- was very moving to folks. People thought that I was an actress because of my delivery when I was just dropping into the work and really pouring out my soul.

A lyric it is true is the expression of personal emotion but then so is all poetry and to suppose that there are several kinds of poetry differing from each other in essence is to be deceived by wholly artificial divisions which have no real being.

That's a wonderful change that's taken place and so most poetry today is published if not directly by the person certainly by the enterprise of the poet himself working with his friends.

I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.

I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.

I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeare's sonnets.

American poetry like American painting is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

I don't like to boast but I have probably skipped more poetry than any other person of my age and weight in this country.

However I learned something. I thought that if the young person the student has poetry in him or her to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching I think.

Everyone needs solitude especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

Perhaps no person can be a poet or even enjoy poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind.

I never thought I'd be doing poetry books. I never really studied poetry. But the first one I did was after my mother died and I realized that people sort of think and talk about her style and fashion but in fact what made her the person she was was really her love of reading and ideas.

Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion but an escape from emotion it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But of course only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.

A real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip.

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.

When I sing I have a sense of peace I feel like my brain turns off and I become the core person of who I am - the essence of me. I feel connected to whatever is out there. It's almost like I leave my body and get to watch.

Several studies and a number of public statements by senior military and political personalities testify that - except for disputes between the present nuclear states - all military conflicts as well as threats to peace can be dealt with using conventional weapons.

My actions to promote peace the mediation missions which I carried out during many conflicts which very often occurred between brothers of the same country are not driven by any ulterior motives or any calculations based on personal ambitions.

It's to be a person who's able to shoot little arrows into sacred cows and knock politicians off their pedestals to look out for hypocrisy advocate for all sorts of things from social justice to peace.

In a tribal organization even in time of peace service to tribe or state predominates over all self seeking in war service for the tribe or state becomes supreme and personal liberty is suspended.