I love to create interesting textures with language. You can do it as long as it seems like a discovery.

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

It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.

Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.

The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times.

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

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