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.

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

If people associate me with a region, that's fine with me.

Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.

Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.

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