University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.

There are no morals in politics there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.

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.

I must not write a word to you about politics because you are a woman.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country's scared.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics in religion in philosophy as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

What politicians want to create is irreversible change because when you leave office someone changes it back again.

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.

I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power.

Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

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.

I use rock and jazz and blues rhythms because I love that music. I hope my poetry has a relationship with good-time rock'n roll.

I was kind of an outcast in school 'cause I always kept to myself and was writing poetry and then going on tour with my brother band all the time so kids didn't know what to make of me.

If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children things that touch your soul.

Poetry is innocent not wise. It does not learn from experience because each poetic experience is unique.

Short fiction is the medium I love the most because it requires that I bring everything I've learned about poetry - the concision the ability to say something as vividly as possible - but also the ability to create a narrative that though lacking a novel's length satisfies the reader.

We are looking to brands for poetry and for spirituality because we're not getting those things from our communities or from each other.

I have epiphanies all the time because I'm always thinking. I'm a thinker. I'm always writing poetry I'm always coming to conclusions.

I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a kind of mean that enables the most dubious practitioners to claim they are poets because they think If the kind of thing Ginsberg does is poetry I can do that.

Because people are very interested in my poetry in what I say.

My art and poetry is very political now. Because you've got to find that truth within you and express yourself. Somewhere out there I know there will be people who will listen.

Now I think poetry will save nothing from oblivion but I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary the only home.

I realized poetry's the thing that I can do 'cause I can stick at it and work with tremendous intensity.