A lot of people think 'I'll give acting or poetry or filmmaking a try. And if it doesn't work out I'll go get a law degree do something else that's more practical.' For me I went the reverse way. I lived the back-up plan.

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.

The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry.

I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.

Poetry isn't a profession it's a way of life. It's an empty basket you put your life into it and make something out of that.

Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.

The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that for a minute the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.

There is something about poetry beyond prose logic there is mystery in it not to be explained but admired.

If a poem is not memorable there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable.

It's something we guys have all done. Made tapes for girls trying to impress them to meet them on a shared plane of aesthetics. Read them someone else's poetry because they do poetry better than you could do it because you're too awkward to do it.

When you're going through something whether it's a wonderful thing like having a child or a sad thing like losing somebody you often feel like 'Oh my God I'm so overwhelmed I'm dealing with this huge thing on my own.' In fact poetry's a nice reminder that no everybody goes through it. These are universal experiences.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric vast and wild.

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

In science one tries to tell people in such a way as to be understood by everyone something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry it's the exact opposite.

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.

I think there's something great and generic about goldfish. They're everybody's first pet.

I try not to wear anything I have to fidget with - there's nothing worse than wearing something and pulling down the hem and re-adjusting the top. My pet hate is when girls wear those strapless dresses and spend the whole night yanking them up.

When a guy tells me I'm cute it's not something desirable. Cute is more like what you want your pet to be.

In Hawaii we have something called Ho'oponopono where people come together to resolve crises and restore peace and balance.

The Palestinian election is something that was really a turning point. It's a mandate for peace.

There is something at work that's bigger than us. It's about having a trust in life and being at peace that things are happening the way they should. You do what you do as well as you can do it and then you don't worry or agonize about the outcome.

I cannot think of anything more difficult than to say something which would be worthy of this impressive and for me memorable occasion and of the ideals and purposes which inspired the Nobel Peace Award.

I build a kind of wall between myself and t he model so that I can paint in peace behind it. Otherwise she might say something that confuses and distracts me.

When I look back on my childhood I think of that short time in Beirut. I know that seeing the city collapse around me forced me to grasp something many people miss: the fragility of peace.