Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language.

I know I'm not a wordsmith. And I don't write poetry. Sometimes I think I should because it's really helpful. But I always wanted to write novels.

Slowly poetry becomes visual because it paints images but it is also musical: it unites two arts into one.

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

While also importantly not wanting to dumb it down or pretend the days of 'difficult' poetry are over because we live in a pluralist culture and there's room for 'difficult' poetry alongside rap and everything else. And poetry won't be for everyone but everyone should have the choice.

Most people read poetry listening for echoes because the echoes are familiar to them. They wade through it the way a boy wades through water feeling with his toes for the bottom: The echoes are the bottom.

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

I came into music because I thought the presentation of poetry wasn't vibrant enough. So I merged improvised poetry with basic rock chords.

It's something we guys have all done. Made tapes for girls trying to impress them to meet them on a shared plane of aesthetics. Read them someone else's poetry because they do poetry better than you could do it because you're too awkward to do it.

I have written some songs but I would really call what I've done poetry at the end of the day because I'll sit with my guitar for hours and hours on end for like a week and then I won't touch it for a month. I also just have no confidence. And you know what? I don't have time because I'd rather be doing other things like knitting.

Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry.

As an actor there is room for a certain amount of creativity but you're always ultimately going to be saying somebody else's words. I don't think I'd have the stamina skill or ability to write a novel but I'd love to write short stories and poetry because those are my two passions.

The Bible should be taught but emphatically not as reality. It is fiction myth poetry anything but reality. As such it needs to be taught because it underlies so much of our literature and our culture.

There'll always be working people in my poems because I grew up with them and I am a poet of memory.

I always pet a dog with my left hand because if he bit me I'd still have my right hand to paint with.

We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act... about the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because and I am not making this up he had a pet cat.

Perhaps it is because cats do not live by human patterns do not fit themselves into prescribed behavior that they are so united to creative people.

If a dog jumps into your lap it is because he is fond of you but if a cat does the same thing it is because your lap is warmer.

I'm at peace with myself because what I talk about is the way I live.

This is probably why my life is easier and my family is very happy because we never lie each other. This is probably all people supposed to feel each other so be always in all of the world they'll be peace.

But now Americans they felt a sense of peace and protection because they've been separated by so many thousands of miles of ocean. And you know the fact that it's come to the U.S. like this is so sad and yet you know what can you do? It's here.

Rwanda was considered a second-class operation because it was a small country we had been able to maintain a kind of status quo. They were negotiating they'd accepted the new peace project so we were under the impression that everything would be solved easily.

For a long time I really struggled with the idea of being an actor because I really felt that I should be in the Peace Corps.

For me to propose a division of Jerusalem was really terrible. I did it because I reached a conclusion that without which there will not be peace.