I did not consider that I would lead a literary life. I'd thought initially, as a young girl, that I would be a teacher, since I so admired many of my teachers. And though I loved writing, I did not ever think of myself as a writer.

Stories come to us as wraiths requiring precise embodiments.

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

I come from people who did not go to college. They didn't even finish high school. People who one might call ordinary Americans who are very hardworking.

Princeton is quite integrated. Women are professors at Princeton. Women are students at Princeton. That began in the 1970s.

Truths are the last thing you learn about your family. By the time you learn, you're no longer their child.

Each genre exerts a considerable spell, as a kind of "form" to be filled, as a Shakespearean sonnet is filled.