"Never interrupt a conversation. Don't speak when a poem is speaking to you." — Jill Alexander Essbaum, American poet, born 1971
"I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom." — Clarissa Pinkola Estes, American psychoanalyst, born 1945
"Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away." — Melissa Etheridge, American singer, born 1961
"There is no fear when you choose love. The more you choose love, the more love is in your life. It gets easier and easier." — Melissa Etheridge, American singer, born 1961
"The photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts." — Walker Evans, American photographer, born 1903
"Stare. Pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." — Walker Evans, American photographer, born 1903
"The blood of heroes is closer to the Lord than the ink of scholars and the prayers of the pious." — Julius Evola, Italian philosopher, born 1898
"The first rule of translation: make sure you know at least one of the bloody languages!" — Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistani poet, born 1911
"The true subject of poetry is the loss of the beloved." — Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistani poet, born 1911
"The only mountain that I would still like to climb: I'd like to break 85." — Peter Falk, American actor, born 1927
"I didn't become an actor until I was an old man of 28 or 29. I declared to the world that I was an actor. Nobody heard me, but I did declare it." — Peter Falk, American actor, born 1927
"There is poetry in the noticing. In allowing your mouth to hang open in the presence of everyday magic." — Megan Falley, American spoken word poet
"Hate thrives in the presence of ignorance, and many poems are an education. Poetry is the anti-bomb, the anti-border. And, in a world where there is so much destruction, creation itself is medicine." — Megan Falley, American spoken word poet