“Poetry is one of the oldest of all art forms, and one of its powers for shamans and tribal leaders was the mnemonic.”

“Poetry is one of the oldest of all art forms, and one of its powers for shamans and tribal leaders was the mnemonic.”

“With a poetry book I can send 100 copies out to reviewers and other people, and even do it in advance and get their response. It's difficult with iPad: how do you send it out for free, and how do you even disseminate it before it goes into their store?”

“I want to prove that if you write in strict meter and rhyme about subjects people care about, they will buy poetry.”

“No poetry that I'm aware of, however bad or glorious, has ever left somebody a worse person than they were before they read it.”

“I am absolutely convinced that my life was redeemed by poetry.”

“You don't have to live in a garage to write great poetry.”

“People who get trapped in the tunnel vision of making money think that is all there is to life.”

“As with the onset of sudden celebrity, for the newly rich, the world often becomes a darker, narrower, less generous place; a paradox that elicits scant sympathy, but is nonetheless true.”

“There are as many forms of happiness as sorrow, though most prove fleeting.”

“Good ideas are like Nike sports shoes. They may facilitate success for an athlete who possesses them, but on their own they are nothing but an overpriced pair of sneakers. Sports shoes don't win races. Athletes do.”