I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I wonder if I ever thought of an ideal reader... I guess when I was in my 20s and in New York and maybe even in my early 30s, I would write for my wife Janice... mainly for my poet friends and my wife, who was very smart about poetry.

I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet.

When you get an idea, go and write. Don't waste it in conversation.

I certainly have the feeling that I'm the same person even though I've changed a great deal.

Certainly, it seems true enough that there's a good deal of irony in the world... I mean, if you live in a world full of politicians and advertising, there's obviously a lot of deception.

Poetry, which is written while no one is looking, is meant to be looked at for all time.