The novel's not the best form for disposing ideas, though that's one thing it can do. It likely is the best form, though, for conveying the experience of us each being alone, trapped in our skulls with only these bodies and this imperfect instrument of language to convey our state and to find meaning and connection.

The idea that language can be recombined to create new forms, new things, is of course very old in poetry.

We want to know that we're not alone with our loneliness or loss.

I just write what I want to read, and sometimes keeping it interesting means adding one more element that ends up adding another year to the work.

The real past can traumatize us, but so can the real future.

I love poetry, read it a lot, but make no claim to being able to write it.

Trauma, and certain important experiences, can imprint on us at a genetic level.