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.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

The idea of avant-garde art is a very suspicious thing to me, the idea that poetry is new and it keeps being new the way Chevrolets every year are new.

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.

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

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.

Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later.