“Do not despair.........For Johnny-head-in-air;He sleeps as sound.....As Johnny underground.Fetch out no shroud....For Johnny-in-the-cloud;And keep your tears....For him in after years.Better by far..........For Johnny-the-bright-star,To keep your head......And see his children fed.”

“Dylan [Thomas] I knew before and after he became famous. He was splendid, rapacious, demanding as a young man. To much has been written about him for me to add to the legend. As that legend began to grow in his lifetime I learned to separate him from his poetry, to find him in person increasingly tedious and his poems increasingly exciting, both in print and when he was reading them.”

“The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

“I imagine Johnny Mathis hates Bin Laden as much as I do, but could Johnny agree Bin Laden had a better speechwriter than Bush? "Axis of Evil"? Come on. "A swimmer in the ocean does not fear the rain" is much more powerful propaganda. Poetic, even.”

“Johnny zingt geen liedjes. Johnny is zelf een liedje.”

“let's do it for Johnny”

“Johnny almost grinned as he nodded. "Tuff enough," he managed, and by the way his eyes were glowing, I figured Southern gentlemen had nothing on Johnny Cade.”