Billy Collins Quotes

Beauty awakens the soul to act.

When you meet someone you love, whether or not they love you back, something occurs in you that makes you want to improve yourself.

Sometimes, you're just moved by people's journeys.

When I first watched '8 Mile,' it was amazing. It got me. I loved it.

I've gotten so many messages I could even get emotional thinking about it, but I've gotten so many messages from young kids all over the country that my story's resonated with them.

Watching people react, watching people be inspired, be taken on a journey, forgetting their problems, looking ahead in their own lives to doing impossible things. That's kind of what drives me, gives me a sense of focus.

[My] hunger and thirst was, and still remains: How do I get people who hate poetry to love me?

Why should it happen that among the great many women whom I see and am fond of, suddenly somebody I meet for half an hour opens the door into poetry?

I think it's never mono-causal why you fall in love with something that you want to do.

Nothing is possible without love.

It's like something happened to you that caused you to do what you do...you heard something somewhere, you felt something about this music that was definitely part of your own vision. That's what the whole thing is like.

...whatever I ended up doing with my life,I wanted to people feel the way this music was making me feel.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.

Poetry, she thought, wasn't written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding.

Poetry can startle you, awaken you, make you fall in love, take your breath away. When those words sink in, you'll never look at your life or your journey the same way again.

If I come across an issue, or something I feel strongly about, and I happen to think of a song that would go in that direction, then I do it. But that's not what I start out, necessarily, to do. Sometimes I may have an idea for a song - "Well, I'm going to write about a thing.

I'm inspired by whatever I see, feel, hear about, watch on the TV...anything. It can be something that I really need to get off my chest so I write or something a friend is going through which gets my thoughts going.

Beauty saves. Beauty heals. Beauty motivates. Beauty unites. Beauty returns us to our origins, and here lies the ultimate act of saving, of healing, of overcoming dualism.

I want people to be moved, to feel called to action. That's what I want to do.

The feeling that 'no one is listening to me' make us want to spend time with machines that seem to care about us.

We all have our muses. My grandmother and my mother are the people I write for. I'll never have to worry about who buys my work, or who likes it, and who doesn't. The people who I want to be proud of me already are.

Love , creativity, and opportunity is in the air. Take it in and do your thing.

The way to get motivated and stay motivated is to identify, define, and emotionally connect to your dreams.

Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning. Dream is also just a word until you decide to fight for it with all your enthusiasm and commitment