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

For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.

My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets.

The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with.

If the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's say. You still are so moved that you can put yourself in that position. That means that the writer has managed to go beyond the personal and touch the humanity in all of us and it's really a blast to read it because I realize how that this does hold true for the truly great poems.

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.

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before, it's impossible.