It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal

Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.

I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.

I see the shape of the poem before I start writing, and the writing is just the process of arriving at the shape.

I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales