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.

One of the biggest changes that ever occurred in my life was going from the isolation of working part-time as a house painter in Henderson County, to Cornell, where everybody was a literary person.

Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.

Some people want to call me an Appalachian writer, even though I know some people use regional labels to belittle.

The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry.

I love to create interesting textures with language. You can do it as long as it seems like a discovery.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.