If I don't have time for the writing, it's because I'm not making that time. It's really just a question of whether you want to or not, whether you feel you deserve to write or not.

The frail, vulnerable sounds of which we are capable seem to be essential to a later ability to roar like a lion without scaring everyone to death.

It is the province of poetry to be more realistic and present than the artificial narratives of an outer discourse, and not afraid of the truthful difficulty of the average human life.

You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds Except the one in which you belong.

When I recite poems onstage, I put myself into the very personal struggle and it grants tremendous perspective. At the same time you get another perspective on the poem you're reciting.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation.

If in your mind it was possible to take a year's sabbatical from work to reassess your life, what would you do and where would you go?