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.

For me, poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we are and to who we will become.

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

The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.

Every day is a gift with a child, no matter what problems you have.

Having a child takes you back to all those parts of your own childhood that you had hidden away.

I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.