“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.”

“You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.”

“Theories are like scaffolding: they are not the house, but you cannot build the house without them.”

“The world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it.”

“We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.”

“If I read a book, and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”