The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end.

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.

A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does.

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

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

Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.

If people associate me with a region, that's fine with me.