And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me.

If I wrote a play with four characters every single one of them would talk like me regardless of age or sex.

And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.

But you'd have a job to find many of my poems which would seem to be very influenced by a particular person.

Anybody who writes doesn't like to be misunderstood.