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

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.

Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places.

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.

I considered going to film school; I took a course in film and was very interested in filmmaking as well as film writing.

In the best fiction, the language itself can become almost invisible.

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.