It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the double strings.

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

Libraries are where it all begins.

Poetry of all the forms of literature I think is the most suited for the digital age and for the shorter attention spans and all of that. It Twitters very easily, some lyric poems and it's very easy to zip a poem to someone, so that's one of the things I think is wonderful about poetry in the digital age.

The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something

There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry