I Think Children Have Talent And Insight,

From The Time I Began To Read, As A Child, I Loved To Feel Their Heft In My Hand And The Warm Spot Caused By Their Intimate Weight In My Lap; I Loved The Crisp Whisper Of A Page Turning, The Musky Odor Of Old Paper And The Sharp Inky Whiff Of New Pages. Leather Bindings Sent Me Into Ecstasy. I Even Loved To Gaze At A Closed Book And Daydream About The Possibilities Inside.

Don't Be So Fast, You're All You've Got.

If We’re Going To Solve The Problems Of The World, We Have To Learn How To Talk To One Another. Poetry Is The Language At Its Essence. It’s The Bones And The Skeleton Of The Language. It Teaches You, If Nothing Else, How To Choose Your Words.

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.

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.