“To this generation I would say:
Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.”

“Petal, like a persistent song phrase, like a few stubborn lines of verse memorized in childhood. The needle was stuck.”

“Let the glossy spreads have their heart-stopping, head-turning kind of beauty. Give me the heart-filling beauty instead. Jolie laide, that's what I would choose. Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.”

“Some would say the Creator is a lamb. Some would say he's a lion. Some would say both. The fact is, he is neither a lamb nor a lion. These are fiction. Metaphors. Yet the Creator is both a lamb and a lion. These are both truths.”

“Free verse may be written as very beautiful prose; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?”

“Some say an army on horseback,
some say on foot, and some say ships
are the most beautiful things
on this black earth,
but I say
it is whatever you love.”

“Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.”

“Neither in prose nor verse we aught can say,
But some one said it long before our day.”

“Some say I have a beautiful voice, some say I have not. It is a matter of opinion. All I can say, those who don't like it shouldn't come to hear me.”

“Some truths are truths, no matter who says them.”