“Narrative- and image-making creatures like humans don’t feel any experience is complete unless it’s recorded.”

Often I find that poems predict what I’m going to do later in my own writing, and often I find that poems predict my life. So I think poetry is the most intense expression of feeling that we have.

The truth is simple, you do not die from love. You only wish you did.

My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first ten minutes, I want to go home and screw. After the first twenty minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.

I don’t think that sex necessarily produces intimacy.

It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.

And what if I don’t want forgiveness?

The soul is awakened through service.

Many people today believe that cynicism requires courage. Actually, cynicism is the height of cowardice. It is innocence and open-heartednes s that requires the true courage — however often we are hurt as a result of it.

My mother wanted me to be her wings, to fly as she never quite had the courage to do. I love her for that. I love the fact that she wanted to give birth to her own wings.

Shakespeare wrote without knowing he would become Shakespeare

There is no loneliness like the loneliness of a dead marriage.

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Solitude is un-American.

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.” – Socrates (470-399 B.C.) “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t

The sexuality doesn’t end. It really doesn’t. You’re sexual your whole life, if you’re a sexual person.

A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive.

The trick is not how much pain you feel–but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain.

We are not people who touch each other carelessly; every point of contact between us feels important, a rush of energy and relief.

Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.

The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong.

Climbing the economic ladder has been very hard for me; I still feel a great deal of guilt towards those I left behind.

It’s strange how a word, a phrase, a sentence, can feel like a blow to the head.

I feel the monster of grief again, writhing in the empty space where my heart and stomach used to be.

This personal freedom to think and feel and speak authentically and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distinguishes us as human.