Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine.

I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before, it's impossible.

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.

I think if you put something in a file that says "war poems" or "love poems" that you already restrict the way in which the poem might move.

Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate.

I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.