I have been, earlier in my life, a lazy writer. I'd spend three hours at the gym to avoid writing, or I'd just find other distractions - reading, doing laundry, talking on the phone, etc. But suddenly I was like a laser beam: I was relentlessly focused, sometimes to the detriment of other things.

I don't believe in God, but I do believe in that chaotic reality, and also this: that none of us knows anything about anything. Period.

I love poetry, but I find it so difficult to write well.

I do write fiction, and I find it more difficult, but also more liberating. On the one hand, you can make up the story, but you have to make up the story.

Think of how much we stress about living up to our "potential," and how it creates anxiety and terror in people; in short, stops them from living their life as fully as they might out of fear and self-loathing.

It's terrible to know that no matter how you try to help your child, his condition will worsen.

I write one poem a year, usually in January or February.