I have students that I tell, "If your book doesn't sell or you can't publish it, write another book. Quit sitting around." The publishing world is a business, but it's not any big deal. An editor is not your guru. Your agent is not your guru.

Be awake to the details around you, but don't be self-conscious.

Even an ice cream parlor - a definite advantage - does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore.

Poetry has never been a favorite American pastime.

I don't know anything but writing practice, and so what I really do is direct that energy as if it were flowing down a river.

Every moment is enormous and it is all we have.

You don't know what you're doing. You're just hoping that people won't make fun of you. I had no idea how it would turn out.