I'm just really interested in the interface of the individual with the collective. I think that's where the arts live.

I do think environmental writers need to be forward thinking, not just lamenting our losses. We do need to lament; in some ways it's important to be the vessels for grief for all that's being lost on our planet. But we also need to be forward thinking.

I was attacked by two dogs when I was three and a half years old. I'm lucky to be alive. My face was stitched back together and here I still am, gratefully so. I believe that experience shocked me into a deep alliance with the animal world, its beauty and viciousness and terror.

We're nature. Our minds are nature. Our desire to make poetry is nature.

I'm really interested in culture because it is such a powerful human force, particularly in America where we think it's all about the individual.

What keeps me level is the refusal to let the best of human aspirations die in the face of the challenges. I make a moral decision to be hopeful.

I think you have to live inside your contradictions and find a way to accept that that's the human condition - to be forced to live in contradiction.