The ideas of the great playwrights are almost always larger than the experiences of even the best actors.

The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.

You have to get beyond your own precious inner experiences.

Poetry and art are key influences in changing how we look at taboos.

Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.

As for what I listen to after writing, it could be anything - but I've noticed that if the current book contains music from one tradition, it is music from another tradition that most relaxes me.

I loathe the trivialization of poetry that happens in creative writing classes. Teachers set exercises to stimulate subject matter: Write a poem about an imaginary landscape with real people in it. Write about a place your parents lived in before you were born. We have enough terrible poetry around without encouraging more of it.