Critics sometimes appear to be addressing themselves to works other than those I remember writing.

A man will reveal his true self, or so it seems, on the tennis court.

How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty?

I don't think I'm morbid by nature. Serious writers have always written about serious subjects. Lighthearted material doesn't appeal to me, and I don't read it. I think I'm a realist, with a realistic sensibility of history and the tragedy of history.

If my favorite, most comfortable place is by our fireplace in cold weather, expedient places are on an airplane, in a waiting room or even waiting in line; frequently these days, while on the phone having been 'put on hold.'

Her wish to die was as pervasive as a dial tone: you lift the receiver, it's always there.

My grandmother could never have written a memoir, so 'The Gravedigger's Daughter' is a homage to her life, and to the lives of other young women of her generation, which are so rarely articulated.