I got married, other people went off. We had sort of another public-we were our entire readership for many years, and we were very excited by each other.

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.

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

You aren't just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been!

It takes a long time to publish a book.

Once I start writing about something, it goes off rather fast, and sometimes details which might be interesting such as what the room looked like or what somebody said that was not exactly on the same subject tend to get lost.

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