I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!

It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing

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.

What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world!

When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings.

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.

My childhood library was small enough not to be intimidating. And yet I felt the whole world was contained in those two rooms. I could walk any aisle and smell wisdom.