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.

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

What actually makes poetry poetry is of course impossible to define. We recognize it when we hear it, when we see it, but we can't define it.

One of the most powerful devices of poetry is the use of distortions. You can go from talking about the way a minute passes to the way a century passes, or a lifetime.

In the late 60s and early 70s, I did get interested in voices, and in narration and embodying the voice, making the poem sound like a real person talking.

You have to really dive deep back into yourself and get rid of so much modern analytical categorization. It's one of the great things poetry does.