I think we're always most interested in the things we're doing right now.

Rhythms and sounds are often the first thing I hear and want in a poem, so I can't imagine trying to translate something without at least being able to hear what it sounds like.

There are some books in which every poem is a facet of the same thing. So the book is like a piece of music. And there are books of poems that I love so much that I carry them around with me.

Whether the poet is living or dead, they're part of our imaginative community.

I'm much more capable of cutting back than of expanding. I've gotten very surgical about poems.

It takes courage to get clear about what your vision of the work is and to be persistent about it and pursue it, whatever you're saying. I'm still in a long learning process.

I think translation is an impossible job, and I admire the people who do it in a way that brings poetry to us that we wouldn't have access to.