The silences express so much and are so crucial in music, and prose does not allow for the creation of these silences, these white spaces on the page or the computer screen.

I have thought for many years that the audience any creative writer imagines has a great effect on what gets written.

In poetry I can let the language go, allow an image that seems out of place to enter and see what happens, always listening to the music that's being created, just like the world around us, never predictable, always shifting and intertwining, reflecting and echoing itself.

Poetry doesn't function by saying things straightforwardly because the language is too imprecise, too limited often, to address the underlying subject of most poems.

One of the most important differences I see between prose and poetry is the music of the language.

I think the language of science is highly lyrical and evocative and an important part of our lives in many ways.

I do love writing prose interspersed with the poetry of other people. Their rhythms break into my prose and create a connection.