When asked what I'd be if I weren't a writer, I'm tempted to respond with one of father's favorite phrases, one I despised while growing up: "I hate 'what-ifs.'"

Place is extremely important to my work because I am always pulling landscape imagery into my poems.

My day does not truly begin until I've acquired and consumed a 32-ounce Big Gulp of diet coke from 7-Eleven. It's the Big Gulp that's important, not 7-Eleven, where I find the employees rather disagreeable.

Different drinks have different metaphorical weight. Wine's heady, gin is poisonous, vodka's cold, and beer is plain boring. In real life, I'm a big fan of boxed white wine, much to the dismay of my more refined friends.

One cannot have "success" in poetry. If I wanted to be successful, I'd have become a lawyer.

I consider poetry my vocation, not my "career." My career is as a university professor; that's what pays the bills.

There IS a difference between poetry and prose! Poems should be sonically charged and new to the ear.