Great Throughts Treasury

"Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts."

"Life/personality must be taken as a total entity. All of your life is all of your life, and no one incident stands alone."

"I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try."

"We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained."

"We love because it's the only true adventure."

"There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your live those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect."

"Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us."

"Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak."

"Sacred cows make very poor gladiators."

"Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste."

"Nothing is easy to the unwilling."

"I resent people who say writers write from experience. Writers don't write from experience, though many are hesitant to admit that they don't. I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy."

"If i can't do what i want to do then my job is to not do what i don't want to do. It's not the same thing but it's the best i can do. If i can't have what i want . . . then my job is to want what i've got and be satisfied that at least there is something more to want. Since i can't go where i need to go . . . then i must . . . go where the signs point through always understanding parallel movement isn't lateral. When i can't express what i really feel i practice feeling what i can express and none of it is equal. I know but that's why mankind alone among the animals learns to cry."

"The world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by."

"If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes."

"I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility."

"In the name of peace they waged the wars. Ain't they got no shame?"

"I grow old though pleased with my memories the tasks I can no longer complete Are balanced by the love of the tasks gone past. I offer no apology only this plea: When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end, please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt That I might keep some child warm. And some old person with no one else to talk to Will hear my whispers and cuddle near."

"Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way."

"Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying."

"If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it."

"We are less lonely when we connect. Art is connection."

"A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die."

"The ability to take pride in your own work is one of the hallmarks of sanity."

"She knows who she is, because she knows who she isn't."