I tell students they will know they are getting somewhere when a scene is so painful they can just barely bring themselves to write about it. A writer has to draw blood.

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

I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.

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

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.

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.

Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places.