If you want to be a writer, you don't want to live in a comfortable place.

But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.

If you want to be a writer, you don't want to live in a comfortable place.

Young men and women come of age when they look at their parents and see them not only as their parents but as people. They gain a lot of compassion, and it's easier to accept their flaws.

Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.

I got to thinking that poems were like people. Some people you got right off the bat. Some people you just didn't get--and never would get.

We have this huge discourse on family in this country, but no one deconstructs it the same way. People talk about "the American family." The right wing has this thing - Focus on the Family. What the hell is that? I don't want to just discuss the issues - I want family to be a real part of the character of the novels I write, and I don't like to write things that feel like issue books.