My best times are midnight to six actually. I'll leaf through my notebooks and if something catches my eye and I feel like I want to transfer it from the notebook to the page, I do, and then comes this very strange process which is difficult to describe in that I'll write until I get stuck or I can't go any further or I'm boring myself or whatever and then I might go to another poem.

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

I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more.

I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.

A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it.

Listen how they say your name. If they can't say that right, there's no way they're going to know how to treat you proper, neither.

I change jobs like drinking water ... And as I grow accustomed to the new flavor of a drink I regard as delicious, yes, vital, something fades, life balks. So I break camp; I shed skins.