I think a diversity of expression can only be good, so I think the more that people write about their experience, use their imagination to deal with their experience, you know, I think that's going to be good for not only for those authors but also for people who are interested in trying to understand it.

The details of the world in which we live are always secondary to the fact that we must live in them.

I understood that 'The Yellow Birds' would be a peculiar representation of the experience of being at war. I intended it to be so.

In a lot of ways, the task at hand for any poem is to approach something that defies exactness or definition with a kind of exactness or precision.

I guess I find the boundaries between poetry and prose to be somewhat permeable.

Freedom is not the same as lack of accountability.

I had the feeling that if I encountered anyone they would intuit my disgrace and would judge me instantly. Nothing is more isolating than having a particular history. At least that's what I thought. Now I know: all pain is the same. Only the details are different.