The trouble with ‘if only’ is that it doesn’t change anything. It keeps the person facing the wrong way – backward instead of forward. It wastes time. In the end, if you let it become...

(It’s) a fair exchange. You’re giving me attention. That’s a form of affection, you know.

There was something about him that drove the shyness out of you, a kind of understanding that went deeper than words and set up an instantaneous closeness. It was odd; we couldn’t have been more...

It’s the person who likes to pat dogs to whom dogs come for pats.

Some criticism, no doubt, is constructive, but too much is a subtle poison.

Let’s not be too harsh where poets are concerned. They have to live in no-man’s-land, halfway between dreams and reality.

Rhythm. Life is full of it; words should have it, too. But you have to train your ear. Listen to the waves on a quiet night; you’ll pick up the cadence. Look at the patterns...

Words. Just little black marks on paper. Just sounds in the empty air. But think of the power they have! They can make you laugh or cry, love or hate, fight or run away. They...

You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. Failure is a teacher – a harsh one, perhaps, but the best. You say you have a desk full of rejected...