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If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.

And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.

Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry.

In my life, I've seen enormous increase in the consumption of poetry. When I was young, there were virtually no poetry readings.

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.

Poetry, being supremely useless, by its very existence represents a protest against the so-called 'real world' of busy-ness and moneymaking, so we must embrace, salute and support our poets.

There's never been a culture without poetry in the history of the world.

Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.

We all need poetry. The moments in our lives that are characterized by language that has to do with necessity or the market, or just, you know, things that take us away from the big questions that we have, those are the things that I think urge us to think about what a poem can offer.