“I would insist that poetry is a normal human activity and its proper concern all the things that happen to people.”

“Human beings are made to forget things, otherwise they couldn't tolerate the pain of life. They say that time heals, but it's not time, it's some inner power all people have.”

“It's all very Italian (and decidedly un-American): to insist that doing the right thing is the most pleasurable thing, and that the act of consumption might be an act of addition rather than subtraction.”

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.”

“some people wish it would happen, some pepole want it to happen, others make it happen”

“I always get a little bit irritated when people talk about 'bringing poetry to the people' especially those poet - performers who seem to assume their audience hasn't read anything, as though 'the people' were some ignorant mass incapable of taste. 'Bringing poetry to the people'? Speaking as a people, I go out and get it as long as its available. When people hear any kind of excellence or panache in the use of language in pop songs or movies they notice it, they talk about it. That's because it's available - inescapable, in fact - while my local library is shutting down.”

“Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other.”