“If I were asked to summarize as briefly as possible my vision of things, to reduce it to its most succinct expression, I should replace words with an exclamation point, a definitive!”

“I find in working always the disturbing intrusion of elements not a part of my most interested vision, and the inevitable obliteration and replacement of this vision by the work itself as it proceeds..”

“The process of poetry consists firstly in maintaining this vision in its integrity and secondly in expressing this vision in words.”

“I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.
I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American.”

“The most common thing I hear from teachers is that I’m not ‘mindful of my words’ because whatever I say always comes out as condescending and insulting to them. However, I think my fellow teachers misunderstood the point, those words were so obviously meant to be insulting. So in that regard, I am actually very mindful of my words.”

“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”

“For myself I know that, as long as I can summarize my experience in words, I would certainly not make any music about it.”

“One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.”

“Pointing to a pile of dust, that had collected, I foolishly begged to have as many anniversaries of my birth, as were represented by the dust. But I forgot to ask that the years should be accompanied by youth.”
Ego pulveris hausti ostendens cumulum, quot haberet corpora pulvis, tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi; excidit, ut peterem iuvenes quoque protinus annos.

“I will simply express my strong belief, that that point of self-education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations, until they are proved to be right, is the most important of all, not only in things of natural philosophy, but in every department of daily life.”