If I had to do it all over again? Why not, I would do it a little bit differently.

Life imposes things on you that you can't control, but you still have the choice of how you're going to live through this.

You can measure a man's character by the choices he makes under pressure.

A man must choose his own way of life, and...it is only by following out one's own bent that there can be the really harmonious life.

The choice was clearly open: crush them with vain and unstinted force, or try to give them what they want. These were the only alternatives, and though each had ardent advocates, most people were unprepared for either. Here indeed was the Irish spectre - horrid and inexorcisable.

Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you.