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.

A lot of my students are Asian-American, and it has been thrilling to watch them break through the stereotypes into something alive and surprising.

I seem to keep returning to my father in poems because his personality was so extreme, so driven. He did everything to excess.

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.

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.

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 poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.