“You will have a story in there… or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word.”

“No one wants to read poetry. You have to make it impossible for them to put the poem down--impossible for them to stop reading it, word after word. You have to keep them from closing the book.”

“If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called Damn It.”

“"Designer drugs" are a word bag, just like "drugs", by the way. But after the word "drugs" is the word: "illegal". And after the "designer drugs" there is something much worse: lack of knowledge.”

“You can see the beauty in things only after learning the meaning of the word 'beautiful'.”

“I have a very young brother and sister, and if you can get a kid singing the words to a song after they heard it for the first time, it's a hit.”

“Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words.”

“I suppose the word "unbearable" is a lie by definition. Unless you kill yourself immediately after using it.”

“I memorized it word for word after having heard it but once. Yet, despite my retentive memory, I found it impossible to recite when I went back into the classroom.”

“Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness…”