Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.

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.

I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.

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.

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think.

I write as a way of keeping myself going. You build your life around writing, and it's what gets you through. So it's partly just curiosity to see what you can do.

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