In the later books I am much more at home in the use of language to describe things. I had never thought of that until a critic pointed that out.

Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques.

The Black Mountain poet I like most is the early Creeley. Those early poems seem very lyrical and very traditional, with a lot of voice and character.

Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later.

Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places.

Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.

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