Over the years I've been trying to build a relationship with an audience. I've tried to maintain as much of a low profile as I could so that those characters would emerge and their relationship with audiences would be protected.

I can't cultivate a relationship with my child if it's between takes. I tried that on a movie and realized 'This is not going to work.' It will work some of the year but not 12 months a year.

It was a very emotional dinner... Everyone shared personal stories about her and gave her words of encouragement and inspiration. Everyone tried to remain positive.

I've tried to take the opportunity to be as positive a person as I can be as positive role model as I can be.

If we tried to write about politics you'd realize that we're all a bunch of idiots.

I'd never really been content with just churning out these slim volumes every three or four years. I've always tried to think of poetry as an active ingredient in the language rather than just something that appears between the covers of thin books.

I always liked the magic of poetry but now I'm just starting to see behind the curtain of even the best poets how they've used tried and tested craft to create the illusion. Wonderful feeling of exhilaration to finally be there.

I have always made my own rules in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do however believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.

A group of us started a community center in Santa Monica. We've tried different programs and three have worked really well. A poetry group. Once a week we visit Venice High and talk to girls at risk.

We tried war we tried aggression we tried intervention. None of it works. Why don't we try peace as a science of human relations not as some vague notion - as everyday work.