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

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

One of the biggest changes that ever occurred in my life was going from the isolation of working part-time as a house painter in Henderson County, to Cornell, where everybody was a literary person.

In the late 60s and early 70s, I did get interested in voices, and in narration and embodying the voice, making the poem sound like a real person talking.

I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.

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.

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