Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.

I don't think it's by accident that I was first attracted to translating two French women poets.

Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.

I try to write everyday. I do that much better over here than when I'm teaching. I always rewrite, usually fairly close-on which is to say first draft, then put it aside for 24 hours then more drafts.

I don't know whether a poem has be there to help to develop something. I think it's there for itself, for what the reader finds in it.

I have experienced healing through other writers' poetry, but there's no way I can sit down to write in the hope a poem will have healing potential. If I do, I'll write a bad poem.

I wonder what it means about American literary culture and its transmission when I consider the number of American poets who earn their living teaching creative writing in universities. I've ended up doing that myself.