What drew me to politics in the first place was the fact that I wanted to have a place to take a stand and use my voice to express what I believed in. But I've no longer got any political aspirations. I feel that as a politician fifty per cent of people would hate you before you even left the house.

If acknowledging that racial misgivings and misunderstandings are still a part of politics and life in America I plead guilty.

The message that I gave on the - on the steps today was that you need to stand for those things that are right and empower the individual. Believe in the power of one person. Don't believe that you can't do it. Everybody wants - everybody wants a shot. That we can all agree on. Beyond that it becomes politics. I'm not talking politics.

There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake art that stands above classes art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause.

I think politics is important. It's how we run our society. I think it should be natural to have an interest in the subject and I almost don't understand why some people don't.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

I hate all politics. I don't like either political party. One should not belong to them - one should be an individual standing in the middle. Anyone that belongs to a party stops thinking.

He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers.

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

That's the way it is with poetry: When it is incomprehensible it seems profound and when you understand it it is only ridiculous.

And how can poetry stand up against its new conditions? Its position is perfectly precarious.

Conventional wisdom notwithstanding there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man's life if he has the weight and cares about the words.

My old teacher's definition of poetry is an attempt to understand.

The more poetry you have in the head the more poetry you will understand because you will be getting to the roots of what it is that makes people write poetry at all.

They need to learn poetry. They don't need to learn about poetry. They don't need to be told how to interpret poetry. They don't need to be told how to understand poetry. They need to learn it.

Poetry should be able to reach everybody and it should be able to appeal to all levels of understanding.