Wouldn't that be wonderful if I could do that? And that way, I could walk with the muse, rather than walk without her. The novel would write itself.

The problem of the female body is not something that I've studied, but my memoir does treat that theme.

Poetics is a science for stammering poets.

In the same way, the people whom I most abhor, I abhor them for elements that I abhor in myself.

Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.

Of course, among the confused motives that spurred me toward being a writer was also the desire to look, to be above the trees and rooftops, beyond the Malaysian horizon that circumscribed my life.

I look at my young students, and I no longer have the sense that, oh, I'm the authority and they have to meet a certain standard. It's like, oh, look at these young ones. They've got such a hard road in front of them. I don't envy them having life ahead of them.