I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.

The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.

In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity.

Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.

The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape.

To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation's sweetest dreams of itself.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That's what sitting on your ass does to your face.

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act.

All of my writing has guitars behind it, even the novels.

And I had not much of a voice. I didn't play that great guitar either.

And most people have a woman in their heart, most men have a woman in their heart and most women have a man in their heart.

As I approach the end of my life, I have even less and less interest in examining what have got to be very superficial evaluations or opinions about the significance of one's life or one's work. I was never given to it when I was healthy, and I am less given to it now.

As a young man, Yeats spoke to me in a way I could understand. Shakespeare I couldn't understand, but Yeats I could. It was his subject matter and also I really admired the way he put his personal life on the line.

As we make our way toward the finish line that some of us have already crossed, I never thought I'd get a Grammy Award. In fact, I was always touched by the modesty of their interest.

At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It's a cliche, but it's underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.

I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly.

I always felt I was scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get a song together.

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

I can make a couple of good sandwiches: tuna salad and chopped egg salad. And Greek bean soup. I was a cook for my old Zen master for many years. So there were two or three dishes that he liked, you know. Teriyaki salmon, a few things.

I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it.

I continually blacken pages and scribble away, so I always have a number of songs that are half-finished.

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

I don't have any sense or urgency about any of my writing, actually. I don't think mankind will be damaged if I don't put out a new album or a new book.

I don't really understand that process called reincarnation but if there is such a thing I'd like to come back as my daughter's dog.

I don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability.

I had a very messianic childhood.

I had girlfriends who really irritated me by their devotion to the Beatles. I didn't begrudge them their interest, and there were songs like 'Hey Jude' that I could appreciate. But they didn't seem to be essential to the kind of nourishment that I craved.

I had the title poet, and maybe I was one for a while. Also, the title singer was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune.

I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people; they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion.

I like life on the road. It's a lot easier than civilian life. You kind of feel like you're in a motorcycle gang.

I never had huge amounts of money when I was young. I had huge amounts of fame, and I always had the sense of labor and recompense. I always said I don't want to work for pay, but I want to get paid for my song.

I never had the sense that there was an end: that there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot.

I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.

I read with some amusement my reputation as a ladies' man. My friends are amused by that, too, because they know my life.

I speak of a clinical depression that is the background of your entire life, a background of anguish and anxiety, a sense that nothing goes well, that pleasure is unavailable and all your strategies collapse.

I think that Bob Dylan knows this more than all of us: you don't write the songs anyhow. So if you're lucky, you can keep the vehicle healthy and responsive over the years. If you're lucky, your own intentions have very little to do with this.

I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet.

I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.

I was born in a suit.

I've always been into self-dramatization. I intend to live forever.

I've got beautiful reviews for all my books, and I'm very well thought of in the tiny circles that know me, but I'm really starving.

I've never sold widely enough to be able to relax about money. I had two kids and their mother to support and my own life. So there was never an option of cutting out.