I read poetry every day. I love the boiled down essence of poetry. I look for poetry in prose. In a way that evocative.

I know I learn a lot from the students in my class and I'm not just saying that to sound like some generous teacher.

Even a day writing badly for me is 10 times better than a day where I don’t write at all.

It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment.

There are some beautiful books out there. But the ones that leave me cold are the ones where I feel—it’s that postmodern thing—it’s more experimentation with language than it is a deep compassionate falling into another human being’s experience.

I think the writer's job is to paint the gray because no life is clearly defined.

What is art if not a concentrated and impassioned effort to make something with the little we have, the little we see?