quotes from classic

Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.

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I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.

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Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.

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Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

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I'm a night person. My best times are midnight to six, actually.

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I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

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The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.

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I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more.

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I make a discovery in a poem as I write it.

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One definition of eternity is that we are not alone on this planet, that there are those who've gone before and those who will come, and that there is a community of spirits.

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It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.

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

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It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

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I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.

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I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.

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Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our days, and they're the things that sustain us. And they're the things that certainly can become worthy of poetry.

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All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself.

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The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now.

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Libraries are where it all begins.

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I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

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