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.

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.

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.

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

People want poetry and need it - we need what's not honored by the corporate mentality that has taken over. It gives people a language for responding to the violence, the shallowness, the near-nothings, the toys we're all supposed to want. It's a way for people to be able to connect with themselves.

I love stories, but writing fiction is another craft and I don't feel as if I have it.

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