Most of the time I'm not really attracted to writing that's focused on filling and fighting it out within a well-defined container. I like work that gets out in the world and lets the world shape the poem.

Occasionally I encounter people getting into their cars who will say, "Oh, you haven't been walking lately" - like I'm a symbol of the ancient art of walking!

We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong. We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.

I died in my boots like a pioneer With the whole wide sky above me.

There's nothing compared to the history of writing about the city of New York that you get, say, in Charles Reznikoff.

I admire the attention other writers can give to the world we're walking in.

When I was in graduate school, my thesis included both poetry and essays. Influenced by the personal essays of James Baldwin and Norman Mailer, I loved the form, but pretty much stopped.