Kids go to school and college and get through but they don't seem to really care about using their minds. School doesn't have the kind of long term positive impact that it should.

My first meeting as a senator my first day they were already talking about the next election. Part of that's the permanent campaign part of that's a word I've been using more frequently 'tribal.' Our politics has become tribal: It's us versus them.

Once you start saying 'Let's talk political my own politics my own aspirations ' it can become not just distracting in that it takes time but it can become confusing and frustrating and is this now a political agenda or a governmental agenda.

As women have played an increasingly important role in politics there is no question that they've brought a different perspective focusing attention on a broader set of issues and building alliances with other women.

First I think more Americans need to declare their independence from partisan politics on both sides. The more that Americans declare their independence the more the parties will have to compete for their votes using reason rather than the hateful appeals.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe and which mean very little.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

The mystic purchases a moment of exhilaration with a lifetime of confusion and the confusion is infectious and destructive. It is confusing and destructive to try and explain anything in terms of anything else poetry in terms of psychology.

But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea but of course I never really much got the chance to do it.

For me concrete poetry was a particular way of using language which came out of a particular feeling and I don't have control over whether this feeling is in me or not.