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

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.

The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse.

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

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.

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.

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.