Every poem I write falls short in some important way. But I go on trying to write the one that won’t.

If you want to be a writer in the world you really have to sit down and say, 'Why do I want to do this and why was I drawn to it to begin with?' And keep reminding yourself to return to that original impulse.

When you have worked with people all day who have so little and struggle to make it stretch, who live outside the rarefied, you are humbled.

Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's.

The students always, always surprise me.

Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.

I don’t worry anymore about writing. There are times that I go through dry periods. I never go through a block. I’m always writing, but there are times where I’m just not on my game, and I’ll use that time to read some new poets, go see some art, walk down to the river and just stare at it, or have a conversation with my sister, or whatever—do whatever it is that I do in my life, hoping that I’ll get filled up enough. And something will happen, some juggling will happen and boom.