If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable.

Young writers find their first audience in little magazines, and experimental writers find their only audience there.

I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.

I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation.

The best books of our times have included the three mature volumes of Philip Larkin. They're very short books of poems, and very carefully arranged.

Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible, as a contemporary poet.

I seem to keep returning to my father in poems because his personality was so extreme, so driven. He did everything to excess.