The subject matter of the stories on the surface... there seem to be a number of stories about travel.

All poetry comes from repetition.

When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven't experienced an awful lot of clicking shut!

It takes a long time to publish a book.

As for political poetry, as it's usually defined, it seems there's very little good political poetry.

I thought, 'There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,' which is what I wanted to be able to do.

Poetry is a deliberate attempt to make language suggestive and imprecise.