A lot of times, when people send me books to read - new writers mostly - I find that the book is still in a draft stage and that before it can leave the writer's hands and head to a publisher, it needs about five more revisions. Some people don't want to do that.

I do believe that books can change lives and give people this kind of language they wouldn't have had otherwise.

As a poet who has the tools for interpreting the poem differently, you can begin to deconstruct it. But the human being who's like, "I know about conversation, I know about language, I know about hard times," will approach the poem differently.

I pay a lot of attention to whitespace. I pay a lot of attention to the rhythm of words together.

When I'm writing flawed characters, I just think about my own flaws.

Don't trust women, my mother said to me. Even the ugly ones will take what you thought was yours.

To watch your home change in front of you is surprising. But at the same time, going someplace like Mississippi, makes me appreciate even this.