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

I'm never quite sure how the poem is going to resolve itself and that I'm always in some way surprised. I make a discovery in a poem as I write it.

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.

Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely.

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

I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day.