There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings as traitors... I mean it.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

I think there is one higher office than president and I would call that patriot.

There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for as for me I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

It is better to be violent if there is violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.

For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers. For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.

What does that represent? There was never any question in plastic art in poetry in music of representing anything. It is a matter of making something beautiful moving or dramatic - this is by no means the same thing.

There's not a good poet I know who has not at the beck and call of his memory a vast quantity of poetry that composes his mental library.

I think it was T.S. Eliot who talked about good poetry being felt before it's understood. I believe that. There are some bands where I love their lyrics but I don't have a clue what they're on about.

For poetry there exists neither large countries nor small. Its domain is in the heart of all men.

There's one of my new poems actually - is a good example of where my poetry has ended up. My earlier river poetry was more like a cross between Shelley and Dylan Thomas.

All I knew about Ethiopia was from a few records that I like as well as what I read about the famine. But you get there and it's another world. It's filled with art and music and poetry and intellectuals and writers - all kinds of people.

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.

It is a happy thing that there is no royal road to poetry. The world should know by this time that one cannot reach Parnassus except by flying thither.

Poetry does not consist of words alone there must be sentiment and fancy combination and arrangement.

I think there's no excuse for the American poetry reader not knowing a good deal about what is going on in the rest of the world.

Well probably I was fed up with concrete poetry. There was a lot of bad concrete poetry and besides it was confused with visual poetry which was completely different.

I always liked the magic of poetry but now I'm just starting to see behind the curtain of even the best poets how they've used tried and tested craft to create the illusion. Wonderful feeling of exhilaration to finally be there.

If there were no poetry on any day in the world poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.