Neither of my parents has been very sensitive about my writing.

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

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.

Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.

The great watershed of modern poetry is French, more than English.

It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.

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