I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

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.

People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.

For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.

Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years - or longer.