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.

If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.

Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more.

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

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

Creative writing and literacy go hand and hand.

I never think of my audience when I write a poem. I try to write out of whatever is haunting me; in order for a poem to feel authentic, I have to feel I'm treading on very dangerous ground, which can mean that the resulting revelations may prove hurtful to other people. The time for thinking about that kind of guilt or any collective sense of responsibility, however, occurs much later in the creative process, after the poem is finished.