For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about the lack of respect artists got here. In my heart, I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art.

I think that when a poem can move readers across generations and across its specific class or race then it becomes truly classic.

The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now

If you can't be free, be a mystery.

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.

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.

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