Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident. Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver, the bat girl in Yankee Stadium. That’s a more fruitful way to be.

Nobody sounds good writing about your divorce, let's face it.

Mother’s particular devils had remained mysterious to me for decades. So had her past. Few born liars ever intentionally embark in truth’s direction, even those who believe that such a journey might axiomatically set them free.

I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world.

Im always terrified when Im writing.

Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.

I do have a really good memory. I mean, like, I can remember all the phone numbers of everybody on the street I grew up on.