When you know you are of worth, you don’t have to raise your voice, you don’t have to become rude, you don’t have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn’t have to protest.
My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.
Courage, I don’t think anybody is born with courage. I think you may be born with a flair to braggadocio, you know. That’s not courage.
My heart is so heavy when I see the reality of the Indian reservation and as an American, I know I am, too, responsible.
I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.
It is better to control oneself, if one can, and not hit back. But on certain occasions, it is imperative to defend oneself. I don’t think it’s fair to ask anybody not to defend herself or himself.
Because of technological breakthroughs, the society will need fewer and fewer unskilled laborers.
If I’m here, I’ll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.
I’ve learned that forgiving is one of the greatest gifts that I can give myself.
Sometimes guns really matter. Protecting those who need protection – children, women, minorities in rough parts of town, old folks living in places where cops aren’t nearby. Guns are true empowerment for the powerless.
I think all poems are commissioned. They just come to me without somebody outside commissioning them. The idea comes and I will live with them ’til I get it as close to what I mean. I’ve never been totally satisfied. I’ve come close a few times.
I believe everything is energy. I believe that the meal you serve yourself, you prepare, is energy. And if you serve it to your family, it’s your gift of energy to them.
There are those who say that poets should use her and his art to change the world. I’d agree with that, but I think everybody should do that. I think the chef and the baker and the candlestick maker – I think everybody should be hoping to make it a better world.
I like to go back and read poems that I wrote fifty years ago, twenty years ago, and sometimes they surprise me – I didn’t know I knew that then. Or maybe I didn’t know it then, and I know more now.
When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one – it’s the first blow in a suicidal movement.
If we live long enough, we may even get over war. I imagine a time when somebody will mention the word war and everyone in the room will start to laugh. And what do you mean war?
I think we ought to give ourselves more time. We should be more patient with ourselves and with each other.
I’m a writer and writers either have good memories or nothing at all.
I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned affectation. It’s like decal stuck up on a person.
Poetry and music are the best at the highest level of the human mind. Out of poetry, out of their need for poetry, human beings have developed the idea of God. And so when we sing, when we dance, when we speak poetry we are speaking out of God’s mouth, each other out of the music from God’s heart.