I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person.

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

If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart — and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.

In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things

I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

If they don't read, if they don't love reading; if they don't find themselves compulsively reading, I don't think they're really a writer