I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.

In fact, sometimes traveling the world is a way of not writing a poem, but it's the quality of experience. It's being able to experience something and when you begin to write about it be able to apply the tools that you need for writing.

If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together.

When I was young, I was older than I am today.

Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.

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

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.